Just The Little Things
by HydenLynch
Summary: A collection of random Shaphne and Frelma drabbles that I have posted on my blog.
1. Notes (Shaphne)

" _Remind me again, why did I take Stats over Econ?"_

Shaggy looked down at his notepad where he had decided to write out his thoughts, hoping that would coaxe his brain into processing what the teacher said.

" _I suppose it was so you could calculate the likelihood of surviving the attack of a horrifying ghoul something or other."_

He sighed, that wasn't doing him much good. Keeping his brain on while being scared out of his mind was an impossible task to say the least.

" _Fair enough."_

He had spent the next two minutes writing out conversations and the occasional recipe for something he was craving at that exact second. But, it still didn't help him care enough to learn. A rush of pain ran through his body when he saw that the class had started 15 minutes ago.

Clearly time had slowed down and he was trapped in a universe where he couldn't understand the language.

He rested his cheek against his hand, really wishing he was either interested enough to discern the lesson or bored enough to fall asleep through the rest of the class.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a hand with sparkly, purple nail polish decorating the nails. The hand had reached over and dropped a folded piece of paper onto his desk. He didn't dare peek over toward the hand, he knew how this went. When a note gets passed you never acknowledge it or the person who passed it.

Otherwise it's certain death.

Besides, he already knew who passed it.

He looked straight ahead and slowly pulled the paper toward him so that is was right in front of him.

Carefully, he unfolded it and peeked down at the words, not daring to bend his head down. Written in Daphne's uncharacteristically horrible handwriting was, _"What do you think of Winne Manfred? Like from a guy's perspective."_

He raised an eyebrow, he wasn't expecting that.

" _I don't know. She's kinda scary."_

He slowly folded the paper again and without looking her way, returned the note. He heard the shuffling of paper and the scribble of the pencil.

The hand appeared again.

" _Yeah but is it like a sexy scary? Are guys weirdly attracted to girls that are probably into handcuffing freaky stuff?"_

" _I think I've had enough of scary chicks and handcuffs in my lifetime Daph. I mean I guess some guys are into that. What exactly is this about?"_

" _Winne just joined the welding club thing and Fred already asked her out to go have pizza with us after school!"_

Of course it was about Fred.

" _Sorry Daph, just make him pay for it all."_

" _Shaggy am I the scary one? I've been friends with Freddie since middle school and I was never once on his radar!"_

Shaggy rolled his eyes, Daphne could be scary but she was also too enticing to intimidate people. At least, that was his opinion.

" _Daph you've been on everyone's radar at one point."_

"… _..Even yours?"_

Damn it, he slipped up. He felt his heartbeat pick up.

" _I don't know man, puberty hit me hard a lot of girls were on my radar."_

" _You're right ugh. I just don't know what about me makes Fred not even consider dating me."_

He sighed, at this point Daphne was going to rant for the rest of the class about how Fred was attracted to everything except her. He had sat through plenty of those before. He sent another peek at the clock and was surprised to see that the class was ending in 5ish minutes.

" _Daph?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _Do you wanna just ditch Velms and Freddie with Winne and grab a burger somewhere? Uh with me?"_

It felt like a million years before she returned the note. He had no clue why he had asked that, but maybe Daph could stand to spend some time thinking about herself and not Fred's attraction.

He slowly unfolded the paper feeling like this wasn't going to end well, _"Only if you pay. And take as many selfies with me as I wish."_

Smiling, he looked up toward the whiteboard in front of them. A few second later the bell rang it's freeing song and they were dismissed.

He instantly stood up and turned to look at Daph seeing that she was reapplying her lip-gloss.

Leaning against her desk, he said, "Remind me why you need me to take selfies?" She looked up at him and smiled, shoving everything in her bag and standing up. He followed behind her as she replied, "Because I know that even though you hate having your picture taken, you will still do it because you love me. I choose to use and abuse my power over my crew."

He rolled his eyes and laughed.

But knew she was right.


	2. Juliet and her Romeo (Frelma)

Velma didn't consider herself a romantic in any sense of the word, PDA made her internally gag and rom coms just produced eye rolls. 

She never saw the point in praising something that they were still too young to understand. 

Being best friends with Daphne Blake constantly reminded her that bubbly and optimistic romance brought forward unnecessary drama and trust issues. She refused to be tugged into anything like that, not while she was still basically a child. 

Regardless of her disdain for debauchery and the like, Romeo and Juliet was one of her favorite reading materials. 

Maybe it was the questions it forced her to ask, or maybe the frustrations it stirred in her.  
Deep down maybe she, like Daph, wanted to have a doomed romance of sorts. Perhaps she wanted to put passion over common sense occasionally. 

Of course, those thoughts were always squashed by her desire to not screw herself over.  
It was currently a Saturday afternoon, one that was the perfect amount of sunny and breezy and cloudy. The kind of Saturday where you could keep the back doors of the Mystery Machine open and read some glorious tragedy. 

These were Velma's favorite types of Saturdays. 

What made it even better was that the loud ones, Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne, had all gone out to the tea house a couple blocks away to pick up some tea and pastries. 

Hopefully Shag and Scoob won't eat all the biscotti and paninis they have in stock. 

With the energetic ones gone, she was able to enjoy her reading without being interrupted. 

She always liked to read the first line over and over again, it always made something in her happy to read them. 

"Two houses, both alike in dignity. In fair Verona where we lay our scene." 

She jumped at the sound of Freddie reading the words aloud. She had forgotten there was another one here. Looking over her shoulder toward the front seat she saw him leaning over and reading the story along with her. 

"Fred you scared the bejesus out of me." She turned back to the book, hearing him shuffle around behind her.  
"Sorry Velms, but you did know I was here too." There was a smile in his voice, she could hear it. He always seemed to smile about the little things. "Yes but you're never this quiet, usually you pretend that I share your massive interest in traps and then we spend the next 4 hours having a one sided conversation." 

He replied, that smile still in his voice, "The we can pretend to share an interest in Shakespeare for the next four hours instead. I can do a give and take relationship easy." 

She scoffed, Daphne was living proof that he lived in a bubble of thinking he was giving and taking. When in reality he was just socially inept. 

Suddenly, Fred jumped over the seat and nestled into the spot next to her. 

As he tried to get comfortable, she looked up from the book and was now looking up at his face. There were a lot of reason why Fred was the only one in the group that was universally popular in their school. 

He was nice, but not unbearably nice. 

He was funny but made no jokes that would hurt feelings. 

He was attractive but not like a supermodel, more like perfect genes. 

Plus all the little quirks in between all those line. 

He noticed her staring at him, his blue eyes locking onto hers, she didn't know whether to be embarrassed or frazzled. He sent her that stupid smile and instantly she felt plenty of things she regretted. Her face was most definitely redder than Daph's hair, judging by how warm it felt.  
She had known him since middle school, she had around 5 years to learn about all these quirks and the things that made Fred who he was. 

He was probably the one in the gang that she connected to the most, even though they weren't alike one any level. Things just clicked when she talked to him. 

Maybe because they didn't need to understand each other to get along. 

One thing she did know was that she cared about him, and really hoped that Daph wasn't let's grow old together in love with him just because of his looks. 

Eventually he got comfortable, which involved his arm going over her shoulder so he could lean over and read next to her.  
Velma pretended this didn't make her feel excited and warm and began to read out loud. 

Of course Fred didn't waste anytime interrupting and asking questions about every little detail, she was sure he did this to annoy her but she really didn't mind. 

For whatever reason.


	3. Things Just Happen (Shaphne)

"Daph can we at least like stop at a pretzel shop or something? Like I'm so hungry I could eat one of the millions of leather purses you're buying."

Daphne whipped her head around causing her ponytail to woosh around her shoulder and hit her face.

Shaggy smiled as he adjusted the weight of the various shopping bags, Daph sent him a scowl. "Shags, you've been through the drill before, lunch time is when all the shops and dressing rooms are empty because the food court is…."

She waved her hand out, signaling for him to finish.

He rolled his eyes as he walked next to her, "Full. Unlike me, who is currently running on an empty tank and whatever that lady at the nail salon gave us."

She smiled as she held her hands up to admire Er Xi's handiwork of small purple rhinestones on a forest green gel polish backdrop.

"Besides, I have no idea why you're buying extra replacement clothing in bulk. Like, your closet is more decorated than your bedroom!" He remembered the one time Daph had sent him in there to find her September jewelry box and he ended up tripping on an ottoman and sending her entire collection of winter outfits crashing down on top of him.

It took even Scooby around thirty minutes to find him and dig him out.

Daphne answered as she placed her hand on his shoulder and began to steer him towards a Francesca's, "Because dearest, no matter how skilled of a seamstress I am, I still lose plenty of outfits, shoes, and accessories to whatever random nut-job got pissed off at the government doing them wrong."

Shaggy sighed and nodded, this wasn't worth arguing because he knew he'd end up doing what Daph said.

"Besides," She added, "Coolsville doesn't even have a mall so I need to get what I can since we won't be coming back here for another few months."

They continued to hop from store to store and with each passing minute, Shag began to get hungrier.

He felt like dying everytime he saw someone shoving Chick-Fil-Aye in their mouth or slurping on an all natural smoothie.  
Food was the foundation of his existence, he could not bear an hour without it. How else was he going to sustain his physique?

Daphne began to notice his distress after she spotted him staring at a display of erasers shaped like Mexican food. She knew it would only be a matte of time before he would go full delusional and start eating the erasers. And seeing how he wasn't being helpful with giving her an opinion on all the hats she was trying on, they weren't gonna get anywhere until he was fed.

Besides, she hated to see him under such emotional turmoil.

She felt a bit disappointed that she had no friends that enjoyed shopping as much as she did.

Fred would almost always ditch her within the first 15 minutes to go look at the engineering of the huge carousel in the middle of the mall.

Velma would ditch her to fail at flirting with the Hot Topic employees.

And Scooby wasn't even allowed in the mall after the whole mustard in the fountain incident.

At least Shaggy didn't leave her alone.

She smiled to herself at the fact that Shaggy of all people put her needs above his own.

Placing the hat down, she walked over to a drooling Shaggy. She linked her arm through his, knocking him out of his fabricated paradise. He looked down at her somewhat confused and then looked at their arms.

Of course he wasn't going to say anything about it, because he knew it'd make both of them uncomfortable and he didn't want that.

Instead, he cleared his throat and said, "So, like where to now? We haven't trekked through Dillard's yet have we?" He looked back up as they began to walk out of the store. Daphne prayed she wouldn't trip over his feet sending them both flying forward.

"Oh goodness no! I'm positive that the fitting room lady hates me."

Shaggy chuckled.

"I'm serious, we come here every four or five months and everytime she's the one on shift and I know she freaking recognizes me! And everytime I try something on she just gives me this devilish glare, like she thinks I'm showing off my money or something. Anyway, if we go there, I'm pretty sure she'll try and mug/slash murder me."

She began to make subtle turns toward the food court.

"Zoinks, okay. Like got it, so we're avoiding devil lady." He looked around at the shops surrounding them.

"Did we go to Sephora yet?"

He looked down at her again with those brown eyes and this time she got this weird feeling running through her whole body.

This was exactly like the dates she would plan out in her head with Fred.  
But this time the date wasn't a total failure.

Was this a date with freaking Shaggy Rogers?

She ignored that terrifying thought and stopped walking, causing Shag to stop with her.

"What's up Daph?"

She let out a sigh, fully shaking the weird feeling off. She was just hanging out with one of her best friends, nothing else.

Quickly, she unlinked her arm from his and looked up at him.

"Are you in the mood for pizza or orange chicken with rice? Because I could eat one of my leather boots I'm so hungry."

It only took one huge, radiant, adorable smile from him to bring that weird feeling back.


	4. Peace and Quiet (Shaphne)

A/N (This takes place sometime during the show 13 Ghosts but I tried to not get super specific just in case you haven't seen that show. But if you ship Shaphne I strongly recommend it!)

"Shags, oh my God do you hear that?"

Shaggy looked up from his comic book with a start, "Like hear what!?" He was still thoroughly winded from the terror of the week. As much as he loved TV, there was nothing fun about being sucked into one. Much less by a gross, pink, zombie-demon thing.

He really missed when the big baddies were just bitter morons hiding under silicon masks.

His eyes shot to Daphne who had curled up on the other side of the couch reading a knock-off of _Cosmopolitan_.

She gave him a relaxed grin as she replied, "I hear absolutely nothing." Shag raised an eyebrow and huffed, glad he almost had a mental breakdown over nothing. But then he caught onto what she was saying and let out chuckle.

"Yeah, no screaming, or barking, or whining, or conning in any way shape or form."

Daphne nodded and let out a contented sigh.

"I was starting to think that Flim Flam and Scrappy were the real demons in our life since they never just shut the fuck up."

He giggled and she began to scoot closer to him as she continued, "I was about to just start running my head against a cheese grater to drown it out." Shag smiled when Daphne grabbed gently onto his hand and locked their fingers together.

"Jesus Daph, you're definitely the expert at providing a romantic setting with that sort of imagery floating around in my head."

"Sorry, I'm just exhausted and their constant babbling is taking my mind to incredibly dark places." Shaggy shook his head and turned toward her, "Freddie would be so disappointed in your lack of patience." Daphne rested her free hand on his knee, slowly rubbing it with her thumb.

"True, but Velma would be proud as hell."

"Agreed."

These were the rare moments in their lives where things were actually quiet enough for them both to think, so they were able to just sit together on the couch.

Criss cross, knees touching.

That's where they felt at home.

They'd mainly just stay like that for hours, talking about either the dumbest shit or the deep stuff. It could go anywhere but it always felt important regardless of whatever the hell they were talking about.

Of course there were the times when Daphne interrupted him mid-sentence with a kiss. Chaste or otherwise.

That indicated that she had stopped paying attention a long time ago and was just admiring the most important person in the universe.

At the moment, Daphne had grabbed onto the collar of Shag's shirt and had dragged him down to her lips, not really wanting to get on her knees and lean over.

Everything felt golden when there was no distance between them, Shag always said that to her when it was just the two of them and she wouldn't fail to roll her eyes and tell him he sounded like the main character of a Hallmark movie.

But she liked his Hallmark cheesy and he knew it

As they pulled apart he opened his eyes and said, "Like kissing an angel."

Another favorite of his.

One that made her groan and giggle.

"Loser."

"I am the biggest loser you will ever know."

"Probably."

He rested his head on her shoulder, she could feel his soft breath on her collarbone as his hands rested on her hips.

"Make yourself at home honored guest."

"No problemo."

He stifled a yawn and and nuzzled further into the crook of her neck, eliciting a shiver from Daph.

"Oops, sorry!"

"You did that on purpose asshole. You can't pretend to forget I'm ticklish everytime we're on this damn couch." Her actions and her words contradicted each other as she began to rub his back.

"Not my fault that I strive to be as close to you as humanly possible."

"Ugh whatever rom com, next thing you know you'll be proposing to me in an airplane or something."

"What would happen if I did that just to spite you?"

"I would throw you out of the plane."

"Truly your love for me knows no bounds."

"Especially when you stop using Hallmark cards as your flirting guide."

"You'll miss it the second I stop."

"Absolutely false."

"You are not known for your skills in lying Daph."

Their bickering was abruptly cut off by another one of Shag's yawns.

"Hey you wanna go to bed? You're becoming a corpse."

"And you complain about my Hallmark lines."

"Shag, sleep is important."

She peeked out the window across the room from them, seeing how dark it was through the curtains and that they had both been downstairs a lot longer than they had planned.

"No can do Daph, this is the rare time I can be lazy and cuddle you and talk about food and comic books and stuff." She grinned, "If I go to sleep than the magic of actually being able to hear you is over."

She hugged him tightly, pulling him in closer as she answered him softly, almost whispering.

"You say that like I'm not going up with you."


	5. Camp I'malittlefreakedoutman!(Shaphne)

Just a little quickie since I watched Camp Scare and got some ideas

Daphne rubbed her upper arms in an attempt to warm up as she scanned the layout of the small cabin.

"Where's Scooby?"

Her voice was groggy and tired and she then realized just how badly she needed sleep. Shaggy closed the door softly and replied, "Like, that dog has a major snoring problem. So I banished him to the kitchen until further notice."

He laughed quietly, the sleep was still strong in his voice.

Daphne smiled and nodded as she made her way over to the bed shoved into the corner of the room. The scratchy sheets and hard as a rock mattress had never looked more inviting in her life. The blankets in disarray from Shag's tossing around trying to get comfortable.

"I'm gonna be honest Daph."

He sat down on the foot of the bed while she dived face first into his pillow, burrowing her feet into the sheets.

Everything was still warm, a stark contrast to her freezing and lifeless bed.

She flipped around so her back was against the mattress, looking at Shag's shoulders as he continued, "Usually I'm the one who has trouble sleeping in red flag zones like this. Like, isn't this situation kinda reversed?"

He turned around and sat on his knees, looking down at her with curiosity burning in his tired eyes.

She bit her lip and sighed, resting her hands on her stomach.

Daph didn't know how to answer his question since she had lost count of all the times Shag had been at her door with a pillow in one arm and sleeping pills in the other.

And she would always let him in, but they never spoke about it with anyone else.

"Why-..Why didn't you just go to-...to Freddie...or Velms?"

He looked down at his hands as he asked this, looking more awake with every question he asked her.

Daphne just stared up at him, admiring how beautiful he looked in the relaxed moonlight coming in from the windows. She wasn't really sure how her body had brought her to his cabin, Maybe it was because if she knocked on Fred or Velma's door, they'd ask her why she couldn't sleep and she didn't feel like answering questions.

Even now, while Shag was asking her questions he didn't seem to need an answer.

Just a quick scan of her face, of her eyes, and he'd just nod and sigh.

Scooting over so that she was on the side of the bed furthest from the wall, she motioned for him to lay down.

Without hesitation, Shaggy crawled forward and flopped down on his chest and turned his head over to look at her. His tired brown eyes caused her breathing to hitch and she quickly turned her head so she was staring at the ceiling.

When she wasn't looking at him it was easier for her to make a grab for his hand.

They tangled their fingers together naturally, like puzzle pieces locking together.

"What time is it?' She whispered, stroking her thumb over his knuckles and feeling soothed by his breath against her neck. "Well according to the cycle of the moon and the angle of the moonlight, I'd say it's ten minutes past no turning back now."

She giggled and then let out a yawn, her vision blurred by teary eyes.

The warmth from his hand was spreading all through her body and seemed to be scaring off whatever thing was keeping sleep away from her.

Shaggy had an almost magical affect on her.

Slowly, she turned her body so she was facing him, sleep returning to her eyes but her heart was beating a mile a minute. Giving him a smile, she let go of his hand and brought it up to his face, tangling her fingers into his hair.

He met her smile with a frown as he mimicked her action and combed his fingers through her matted hair.

She knew what his frown meant.

It was letting her know that their promise that things wouldn't escalate was being broken, and she still wasn't sure if it was a bad thing.

Sometimes, like now, she would simply rest her lips against his and let herself get lost in the electricity jolting through her body. Other times she would let him leave kisses along her neck as she would let out contented sighs.

Sadly, a lot of the times they'd both be crying. Letting out all the tears they held in during the day.

But as soon as the the sun rose, none of these things ever happened.

Right now, neither of them had tears in their eyes as Daphne pressed her lips on his cheeks and rested her forehead against his.

Something inside her always said to stop, to let it end before she went to far.

But a stronger part of her needed to feel his warmth.

It was the only thing that could chase off the fear resting on her shoulders and keeping her awake for days at a time until, finally, Shag would appear in front of her hotel room door with pillow and dark bags under his eyes.

And she would finally get a good nights sleep that would last her a few weeks until the heavy feeling returned and she would wait for Shaggy to appear once again.

And yet, this time it was her who appeared in front of his door.

Almost as if she wanted to show him the she needed him just as much as he needed her.

Part of her wished she could do this without shame.

That Fred and Velma would understand. But she knew that they dealt with trauma and they definitely wouldn't approve of them both taking advantage of their pain to sleep together.

As if this wasn't the answer to their pain.

That whole sentence rang untrue in Daphne's head.

As his fingers massaged her scalp she knew that he was helping her.

She woke up to the sounds of an all too chipper Fred making morning announcements over a bull horn.

Her legs tangled with Shaggy's.


	6. No Mistletoe Required (Shaphne)

"You havin' fun there honey?"

Daphne said this half-joking, arms crossed over her chest and a smirk gracing her lips, as she looked down at her husband. He had created a comfy little set-up sitting next to the famed chocolate fountain with a bowl of Chex Mix resting in his lap, dipping one piece after the other into the never-ending wave of sugary, gooey goodness.

"Anything to avoid your sisters' questions." He dipped one of the weird, breadstick looking things and then offered it up to her.

She took it without a beat and smiled.

"That bad huh?" She popped the strange treat into her mouth, eyes widening in surprise as she realized that the salty-sweet ratio was totally perfect. Shaggy nodded and handed her another one, this time it was one of the wheat squares. "I'm being bombarded with demands, like they wanna know if we forgot to send a copy of the wedding photos to them."

Daph scrunched up her nose, she wasn't a fan of this one.

"I suppose they're wondering if I'm gonna do a baby shower?"

Shag groaned and ran a hand through his hair and then he nodded, she bit her lower lip and took a step forward to rest a hand on his shoulder. She massaged it gently as her husband spoke, "Like, it amazes me that you're parents don't give a fuuuu-dge-"

He looked down at his wife's stomach and she giggled.

"Fudge is fine right?" Daphne nodded as she continued to laugh, never in all her years did she think Shaggy would use substitute cuss words.

Damn she loved him.

"Anyway, your sisters care a LOT more about this whole baby thing than your parents do..."

Daph nodded and accepted the chocolate covered mini-breadstick he handed her, "Mama's tried to give me a glass of the Christmas champagne four separate times tonight- _at_ _least_.. She _actually_ asked me why I looked like Pluto while we were setting up the Secret Santa gifts.."

Shag chuckled, "It astounds me she was able to be pregnant five times."

"Everything okay with _your_ parents?"

Her grip on his shoulder tightened as she saw his expression grow somber.

Against both of their better judgments, Shaggy and Daphne decided to invite Sugie as well as his parents.

And while Shaggy loved Sugie to the moon and back, her relationship with their parents had been very rocky since her wedding. Rocky in this case meaning they couldn't be in the same room together without arguing and crying and getting drunk.

Which were all the things Velma would love in a party.

But not Shaggy.

He let out a shaky sigh, "Everything's kinda cold right now but I think Sugie really wants to make up with them. It'd be nice if our family could stay normal for one second..."

Daphne nodded but then let out a soft chuckle.

Her husband raised an eyebrow at her, "What?"

"I hate to break it to you honey but... you lost any chance of having a normal family the second you married me." Shag laughed and slapped his forehead in pretend exasperation, "Shoot! How could I forget my crazy wife and her psycho family?!"

Daphne let out a loud laugh, one that echoed throughout her parent's third favorite ski lodge. Her eyes were sparkling and she gave him a fond look, one that pierced deep into his chest and robbed him of his breath.

Setting his bowl aside, he stood up and brought things back into order.

With him now towering over her, Shaggy leaned down and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. Keeping it simple and soft, enjoying the taste of her peppermint lip balm.

But as he tried to pull away, Daphne grabbed onto the collar of his shirt and brought him back down for more.

"No mistletoe required..." He whispered softly against her lips.

She chuckled again and rested her head into the crook of his neck.

As she peppered the area with kisses, Shag said, "You sure you don't wanna go lay down on one of their ginormous couches? Last I asked you mentioned your back was killing you. Figuratively I assume..."

He went silent when he felt teeth graze his skin.

Daphne's tell-tale sign to shut up.

"Just because I'm the size of Pluto doesn't mean I can't hold my own."

"Pluto is like the cutest planet."

The teeth grazed again, sending electricity through his veins.

He remained quiet and started rubbing smooth circles in her back, enjoying the contented sighs she let out over his cold skin.

They were both glad to be hidden in the back next to the snack table and far away from everyone who was currently playing a wild game of Uno in one of the three living rooms.

Both of them let out annoyed grunts as they felt Daphne's phone buzz insolently between them.

With a clear pout on her face, Daph took a step back and pulled her phone out of her dress pocket. Shag letting out a sigh as her warmth left him and running a hand over the spot on his neck that his wife assaulted.

Only Daphne could make him feel like a seventeen year-old boy all over again.

As she stared at her phone screen, her face lit up and she tapped something on it.

"I was wondering when the hell you were gonna call"

The crackling voices of Fred and Velma sounded on the other line.

"Language Daph... think of the baby."

Shag chuckled as he stepped into view and wrapped his arm around Daphne's waist.

"Ay! There's the old whipping post now!"

"Glad you're doing well too Velma."


	7. Is Rum Chata Really That Good? (Frelma)

"Is Rum Chata really _that_ good Velms?"

Fred's curiosity never failed to pry through their comfortable silence and force Velma to step out of her thoughts and ponder answers to questions she didn't care about.

She glanced down at the bag she was holding that contained the subject of discussion.

Furrowing her brows, she thought for a moment.

Trying to think of a way to make this conversation topic interesting, it wasn't easy. But Fred saved her from the potential turmoil, looking straight ahead and answering his own question; from her perspective no less.

"Then again- milky drinks have never been your thing have they?"

She tightened her grip on his arm as they navigated the crowded sidewalks, knowing that he already had the answer to that.

"Still," His voice rang out once again, clear and proud - never failing to send shivers up the short woman's spine. "It was a thoughtful gift to receive from Agnes..."

"Sure was."

The first verbal contribution she'd provided since they had left from her lab's Christmas party.

She nuzzled her nose against his bicep, annoyed at how much the cold was making it sting. Fred wouldn't waste anytime burying her in blankets and turning up the heater as soon as they arrived back at their small New York apartment.

Eventually Fred's ramblings were drowned out by the wonderful sounds of car horns honking and obscenities being sent bouncing throughout all of the closed up walls of The Big Apple.

Velma grunted as she bumped shoulders roughly with some random passerby.

Neither of them acknowledged each other but Freddie still turned his head back to shout out a quick, "Sorry!" Which, although she tried very hard to hide it, brought a bright smile to her face.

One that Fred saw in an instant (the guy had some sort of beacon that could detect Velma's smiles she swore).and sported his own broad grin within seconds. "You have a beautiful smile~" Velma squeezed his arm harder, "No I don't you need to shut up..."

He laughed and Velma huffed, glad she could use the cold as an excuse for her red cheeks.

After a few seconds of heartfelt giggles, Fred leaned down quickly and pressed a kiss to her temple. Retreating back immediately before she could scold him for kissing her in a public setting.

Silence returned.

Several minutes ticked by before Fred let out yet another question.

"Did you get the plane tickets?"

This time, Velma knew she had to provide some actual answers to his never-ending wave of inquiries.

"Yup."

She said it with a pop and ran their bag of "milky" alcohol up her forearm and to her elbow she she could shove her freezing hand into the pocket of her coat.

"We should Face Time them once we get home."

Velma nodded, letting out a quick yawn.

"And Daph still says she's not doing a shower?"

"She says she's undecided, which is Daphne for 'I don't wanna plan another party that I don't have time for.' So, no I'ma say no to the shower." She heard Freddie sigh, knowing full well that a million new questions had popped into his head, "W-Well why can't Shag plan it? He's Mr. Stay At Home Dad now right?"

Velms shrugged.

"Shag does whatever him and Daph agree on. That's how they are. Daph had to propose because Shag didn't wanna do anything out of her comfort zone and that resulted in no engagement ring for maybe a year." Another sigh escaped her lover as they rounded the corner - stopping right in front of their apartment building.

Taking a step to the side and letting go of Fred's arm, Velma looked up at him to admire the way his blue eyes sparkled underneath the infinite strings of Christmas lights.

He really was beautiful.

Velma didn't think she went a day without thinking that as she'd admire every little detail of him from bottom to top.

Her endless pit of questions and love.

He recognized her staring up at him and smiled fondly, taking a chance and bending down. This time earning a willing kiss from his lady love.

"When do you think we're gonna get married?"

That soft whisper against her lips drove her a lot crazier than Freddie thought it did, bless him.

Licking her lips, Velma genuinely pondered the most honest response.

This was a big question.

And a few months ago, this question would have scared her so much that she wouldn't have been able to look Freddie in the eyes.

But now things were different, Daphne and Shaggy of all people were having a kid. And they were the happiest she had ever seen them because of it, facing their uncertainty head on. Together.

Now it was Velma's turn.

Grabbing onto his hand, she swung it back and forth before replying.

"I think... that if you proposed to me tomorrow... I'd say yes... no regrets or strings attached."


	8. It'll Be A Sensation (Shaphne)

I think I've officially run out of pansies to count outside our apartment window, Mrs. Dabney can only plant so many flowers across the street.

Of course, it wouldn't have killed her to use a variety of colors – red had become rather dull.

Yawning, I stretch out on our window seat and rest my head down.

I send a glance back in the direction of my pet, who was occupying himself with click clacking until the wee hours of the morning on the typewriter. Deadlines or not, it had been over a fortnight since my pet had gotten some proper sun outside of our afternoon walk.

Turning my attention back to the "riveting" pansies, I hear him yawn.

He rubs his hands over his face and through his hair, exhausted from the time he's spent checking his own notes.

Ever since he had been asked to write this cookbook, he'd hardly have time to focus on his personal life.

I was mostly concerned with his social life.

No matter how many hard whacks to the back he'd get, I knew that Shaggy wasn't exactly in love with the bachelor lifestyle. And I definitely agreed with that – even more so, I'd say it was completely uneventful and boring. Our small home only ever filled with sighs, yawns, and that infinite click clacking – nothing there to be proud of.

Sure, we had friends that we could go and have the occasional well-to-do with.

But… that was hardly the type of "companion" I figured Shaggy needed.

I imagine that if there was anything to free him from his workaholic ways - it'd be a healthy female.

Now I was a total novice when it came to the standards of human beauty – what smelled bad to me smelled amazing to other men evidently.

But after living in the big city for a few years, I think I have a fairly broad idea of what to look for.

Unfortunately, the closest I've ever gotten to finding my pet a decent mate was through window shopping. Which hardly counted for anything because plenty of ideal specimen had passed by our building multiple times.

And I had no way of stopping them.

I'm sure any of them would be very eager to make my pet happy.

I heard the chime of the clock – twelve p.m. had arrived – the best time of day for window shopping.

The click clacks counted out the seconds until the first woman passed by, she didn't look old or sickly. Things were looking up already!

And then I saw her yelling out something incoherent at her supposed companion, who she was also dragging by the neck on one of those horrid leads. I furrowed my brow and shook my head, 'Definite no.' I thought.

That woman was just the first of a long line of near misses.

Too rich looking.

Too old.

Not old enough.

Too busy being chased by the police.

It was like this every day, my life, just trying to find a woman that wasn't clearly full of herself, old enough to be Shaggy's grandmother, or daughter, or a menace of the law.

Frustrated, I drag one of our unread magazines in front of me.

A blonde woman with bright red lips and long legs posed on the cover page – her close-mouthed smile planting a lot of questions in my mind, 'What on earth is she smiling about?' Being at the top. The woman that was being dragged away in handcuffs looked a little like her – but Shaggy deserved more than just a beautiful mate. He deserved a smart and kind one, somebody who would understand and help him adapt to a life with less click clacking and more plates of his food being left on the floor.

Somebody kind and sporting a beautiful smile, who wasn't afraid to rub my belly.

And that was when it clicked in my mind, a flash of red and purple before my mind turned those colors into shapes. And then those shapes became a woman.

My eyes could have followed any other woman walking along, but they stayed glued to her.

Something about this creature made me sit up and lean against the window.

She was grinning brightly down at the book she was holding in her hands, sending glances down at the small dog walking alongside her.

With no clear leash, I noted.

Now I was already given a special feeling about this one, the smile on her face and the bounce in her step telling me so much about her.

But as soon as I saw her partner walking next to her, my mind had been totally made up.

Somehow, someway, I was gonna stop the two of them – and Shaggy was gonna be with me.

After a chorus of barks and scratches at our front door, insisting I take Shaggy out for a walk, he let out an annoyed groan, "Scoob you're just trying to get our neighbors mad at me, aren't you?"

He dodged piles of clothes and his (now broken) umbrella, yanking his keys from the paper-covered table.

I saw him wince as the midday sunlight hit his eyes and he recoiled back into the shade for a moment before seeing that I wasn't stopping for him.

"Scooby! Like if you don't slow down the neighborhood watch lady is gonna make me put the leash on you." I huffed, Shaggy wasn't in any hurry to make it to the park – which is where the mystery dog and her pet most likely went – at this rate his leisurely pace was gonna result in him losing the love of his life.

That was when an idea popped into my head, and few minutes later I was dragging Shaggy by his arm, 'Thank goodness these nightmarish things work both ways.'

I ignored the many complaints and orders to slow down, and the sound of him almost tripping over a tree root. There would be time to be punished during the wedding reception, if he had gotten Shaggy out here in time.

There was no way that angel and Shaggy's perfect match could have sped through the park on a day like this.

That'd be criminal.

Unless you were doing it for the sake of love.

Like he was.

Right now.

Damn it, where was she?!

There was no way he was gonna let that one and a million chance at Shaggy finding love just disappear without him ever even getting at least a glance at her. That would be my ultimate crime against humanity.

Dreary, gray, early spring sunlight shone through the newly revived treetops – acting as no help to my search.

I swerved my way through the endless lines of pathways and even dragging Shaggy through unkempt bushes. Ready to deal with his wrath later, or as angry as Shaggy was capable of being. That wasn't the priority right now.

My heartbeat began to pick up the pace as dread set in and I realized that I had taken too long.

Part of me had already given up – prepared to be trapped in that room with a never ceasing click clack and growing dark lines under Shaggy's eyes.

And then that flash of red blurred across my vision, clear and distinct as ever.

She's here, thank God she's still here.

I make a sharp turn towards the bench she's sitting at, nearly sending Shaggy careening into a tree, and I see that same bright smile tugging at her lips. Occasionally interrupted by the shaking of her shoulders as she'd chuckle softly at the story's antics.

I had been so excited to see her and the charming companion resting next to her, that it hadn't occurred to me that I didn't have a plan.

When I finally dragged my pet's sorry butt to the bench, where were they gonna go from there?

Knowing Shaggy, he'd avoid eye contact and say nothing before dragging me away from her and the lovely, cocker.

Poor man was never gifted with talking to the ladies.

I turned and sent a glance up at him, he was sending me a very similar, confused look.

"What are you doing bud?" Is what he was communicating to me.

Which was a good question, exactly what was I doing?

Huffing, I agreed to make sure they actually saw each other before I made any further movements. But as soon as I turned my attention back to the bench, both the perfect mate and the lovely dog had left. Fate was just not gonna be on my side today was it?

Immediately I set off, there was no way I was gonna get that lucky a second time – I absolutely needed to catch up with her otherwise I'll lose both of them forever.

I sped down the pathway, my vison centering on what was in front of me, staying attentive with the hopes of see that bright red hair. How I wish Shaggy could detect the gravity of the situation so he'd bother to let me run without fear of sending him face-first into the pavement. And that was when I saw her, with the small, fluffy companion alongside.

The end of our bachelor lives was just within my grasp and growing closer.

And then, it was growing farther away.

"Alright Scoob, this has been a fun workout and I'll be sure to remember it fondly when I see all the bruises on my shins. But I can't keep letting you drag me through the park, it's making me hungry."

No Shaggy!

Please don't give up on my cause!

Not when she's right there!

The tugging at my neck didn't relent and now I was regretting letting him put the leash on in the first place.

As that flash of red began to shrink from my sight I growled – I wasn't going to return to a life of yawning without giving this a real shot. There was only so much I could do for my pet, not enough to prevent loneliness.

Using all the strength I had, I began to pull.

'I just need to get to her and then it'll go on from there.'

Never had something relatively close felt so far.

One step after the other, I made sure to anchor myself each time, this was gonna need to be quick otherwise Shaggy would become exasperated and just pick me up.

In a few short moves, I reached the red and made a quick loop around her legs – she let out a surprised cry but I didn't give her or Shaggy anytime to process.

All at once, I had tied their legs together and forced them to see each other.

I grinned proudly, now I was just going to let nature take over.

The little cocker spaniel stood across from me, her face contorted in worry, it'd only take her a moment to understand.

The two pets struggled to get balance as they wriggled around, "Ma'am I'm so sorry I – I don't know what's gotten into him." Shaggy said this as he attempted to bend down and free them of their fabric shackles.

The grey light and the soft babbling of the brook next to them added quite a lovely soundtrack to their meeting.

The sound of them both splashing into said brook was less lovely.

On the bright side the leash had unraveled.

The small spaniel sent him a glare and leapt into action, jumping into the brook to chase after Red's runaway book.

Speaking of Red, I have to say she is quite the complainer when it comes to being drenched.

"This was my newest blazer, oh dear the cold water's gonna ruin it! A-And my skirt, th-the colors are gonna bleed everywhere!" She sniffled as Shaggy offered both of his hands down to her, she stared at them blankly for a moment before grabbing onto them and letting him pull her up.

She then returned to complaining, "I-If you can't even control your dog on a leash then maybe you shouldn't take him out at all!"

"Yes ma'am I really am so sorry… I'll pay to get everything dry cleaned for you."

The woman stared at him blankly as she sniffled again.

Then she looked away, marching out of the brook with a puddle of freezing water following after her, "I think you've done enough already sir…" Her companion returned with the book clenched in her jaw, stopping right next to me and giving her whole body a good shake.

I closed my eyes as the barrage of droplets attacked me.

"Come along Nova, I need to get out of this outfit quickly." As she turned away and began to leave a thought crossed my mind, 'Had I messed up?'

And then the woman let out a loud sneeze, pulling me from my thoughts and dragging Shaggy's attention away from glaring at me.

"Oh fantastic." The lady said bitterly as she turned back toward the brook to squeeze out her soaked handkerchief.

Amazingly, Shaggy moved into action on his own, going toward her while searching his own jacket pocket.

"Here – um – have mine…." He said as he found what he was looking for and presented it. The two of them stared at the completely soaked article of fabric, and there was dead silence between them.

And then, that smile returned to her face.

A soft chuckling filled all the empty space, and it quickly evolved into hysterical laughter as she leaned forward to brace her weight against him, resting her hand on his shoulder. Soon both of them were in an uncontrollable fit as they continued to lean against each other.

Somehow, the little dog had found her way next to me without my knowing, as I looked down at her I saw that glimmer of recognition in her eyes.

Now she realized what I had done and she smiled up at me.

I returned that smile and brought my attention back to the two laughing idiots before me.


	9. He saves me (Shaphne)

Something inside Daphne always feels numb when she watches the police drive away.

The flashing red and blue lights slowly shrinking down the road - the paramedics giving them all a once over before suggesting they call their parents and get a decent night's rest.

The four of them would exchange a knowing glance, they'd probably all just sleep in Daph's house tonight.

Fred and Velma had been debating for the past few minutes whether to order Chinese or pizza, and sending Shaggy a glare when he proposed they just get both.

Daphne had just decided to stay out of it altogether.

It was a very rare occurrence, the man in the mask getting his hands on her. She had always been on the offence side of the line - kicking teeth in and planting the perfect seed for a nasty black eye. Never hesitating to charge forward to protect her friends when they found themselves frozen in place. Mainly Velma who, even though she was the smartest out of the gang, was somehow the only one stupid enough to freeze to the ground.

She had always been the fight to Shaggy's flight.

Fred used to say that, mostly as a way to brag about the many facets of their team.

So long as Daph had the fight in her, she wasn't afraid of losing her friends. Of losing herself.

But every once in a blue moon, a sweaty palm will throw her against the wall and then press rough fingers into her waist. They'd lean in and force her to look at the dead eyes of a soul-less mask.

And if she hadn't already sent a rough kick in between their legs, that meant they were stronger than her by a lot.

By too much.

She could never tell if the intentions were perverse or they just wanted to scare her.

Either way, it left a strong impression on her - a reminder that she wasn't some sort of Adonis. She was a teenage girl that knew how to throw a couple fancy kicks, of course there were gonna people out there tougher than her.

And that was enough to make her freeze up.

"Like, Daph maybe you should drive so that we can actually leave this parking lot." Shaggy was standing in front of her, looking down at her as she sat on the bumper of the Mystery Machine. Daphne nodded but couldn't bring herself to say anything.

The boy noted her silence and how she was staring down at his feet instead of up at his eyes.

"We all know that it takes like until the wee hours of the morning for Fred and Velms to reach any sort of compromise." She saw him shove his hands in his pockets, she nodded again.

"I think they both don't wanna have to pay, they're just waiting for us to jump in say we'll buy both." Again she said nothing, feeling something step down on her chest as he kept talking, for her sake.

"If you can't stand being here anymore I ca-"

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you..."

She heard him let out a soft gasp and he began to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Daph... Daphne..."

She looked up at him, mad at the lump that was forming in her throat.

His brown eyes were just barely shining under the parking lot's lights, a soft smile on his face. He looked radiant in the dead of night, putting on such a relaxed face that she didn't understand.

As he began to bend down, resting his hands on his knees and squatting down in front of her, she found herself needing to look away.

His face was just too much for her.

"I'm pretty sure I've owed my life to you over a hundred times at this point, my grandkids are gonna be paying off how much I owe you Daphne Blake."

"That won't mean anything if I'm too late to save you, just once I-..."

She didn't know what else to say, where she was going.

Usually his voice was the one that was quivering and her steady tone would draw him out. Roles can be reversed quite easily, she found.

He had seen her being pressed against the wall, barely any breathing room left for her. And after a fun few moments of second guessing, he had charged in after her. It was all a blur, a rough kick to the back of the knee, his grip on her hand before she was even able to process who he was. As they ran together through the halls, Daphne stayed quiet - just staring down at their intertwined fingers.

She was brought back to reality as his hands were rested over her own.

"Y-You could have gotten hurt..."

She brought her right hand up to his cheek, surprised that is was shaking.

"But I didn't..."

He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes and letting her feel his warmth.

"And what if you did?"

Daphne was leaning forward now, hardly registering the tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Jesus Daph, how do you expect to get through this life thinking like that?"

Shaggy didn't waste any time pressing his forehead to hers.

"Because what good is Daphne Blake if she can't protect Shaggy Rogers?"

She felt him wipe the tears from her cheeks as she began to nestle her face into the crook of his neck.

"She means everything to me, and that alone makes up for all the bad things in the world."


	10. Typical me breaking my typical rules

Surprisingly, Daphne can still look Shaggy in the eyes after it happens - after the gravity of their actions sets in and they realize just how not okay it is. And Daph suddenly understands that in any context, what she did wasn't a good idea at all; no matter how distraught she was in that moment. To think the glow of hallucinogenic fire would have such dormant feelings burst out the front of her mind and turn the pit in her stomach to a full-blown vortex.

Rational or not, Daphne's feelings for Fred are still there, and those feelings have been shown to do dangerous things to her. Things that force her heart-rate to double in speed and push her through the Gothic halls of a forgotten library.

When she is brought back to reality by the eerie crackle of the fire just inches away from her, Daphne is stunned to see the man whom she was supposed to be embracing staring down at her in shock. And when she goes to inspect the person that has their arms wrapped around her, she is met with equally shocked brown eyes.

Several days are dedicated to damage control from both parties - Shaggy attempting to calm the fires of his overly-protective canine as well as the almost constant teasing Velma sends his way. Daph spends all of her free time trying to calm the black hole in her gut that keeps reminding her that she loves Fred Jones, because it's starting to hurt. When she's not doing that, Daphne is usually trying to sustain Freddie's ego, continually assuring him that both her and Shag weren't right in the head when it happened. It was taking a while but he was slowly beginning to believe her.

Everything was actually returning to a state of normalcy, at least the sort of things that are considered normal in the life of Daphne Blake. Any mention of the incident seemed to become a taboo subject among the gang and Velma had at the very least become bored of the discomfort Shag showed when she brought it up.

Daphne had persuaded Fred to hide out in her house and away from family drama and was certainly relieved to have back on a regular showering schedule; now that the hole in her stomach pushed her to be as close to him as possible.

It had just been a simple afternoon - much simpler than most - the gang was relaxing by the pool at Daph's house and keeping their minds occupied. There was no particular issue or drama circling the air that day, which was the only way they could remain so relaxed, Velma was resting under an umbrella and flipping through the various clues she had found at the library, Shaggy and Scooby had taken it upon themselves to provide a hearty feast, and Fred and Daphne were perched at the pool's edge. Their hips were connected and all Daph could bring herself to do was count the small dots of bright pink granite that decorated the bottom of the pool.

Indeed it was a quiet day, and these were the days the gang cherished most, where everything could go by slow and steady. And yet, Daphne was in an indescribable amount of pain, all of it coming from that damned vortex; her hands were clasped tightly in her lap because if she set them free then they could begin to tremble as if the whole world was vibrating.

She wanted to blame it on hunger, that the amazing scents drifting her way from the outdoor kitchen were just reminding her that she had skipped dinner last night and breakfast that morning. But this couldn't be chocked up to hunger pain, because this felt like a beam of fire and light was forcing itself through her guts and through her veins. It was bordering on unbearable but she didn't dare give it away to Fred; out of fear that he'd disconnect from her. So long as she sat still and kept counting the dots, Daphne convinced herself the pain would pass.

And that was when his voice sounded out, "Alright ladies and gentleman, like, come and get your grub!"

She began to breathe in and out through her nose as she shot to her feet, disconnecting herself from Fred, and running passed her friends. Ignoring them shouting out to her, Daphne sped up the stairs and practically kicked open the doors that let her back into the house.

Her vision had begun to blur around the edges as tunnel vision kicked in and her brain urged to keep searching for the thing she needed; placing both her hands over her mouth in hopes of keeping everything sealed in. Even though this was her own home and she had lived here since birth, she found herself rounding corner after corner with no success in achieving her goal. She almost gave in to the desire to fall down on her knees in defeat, but then for a split second the buzzing in her brain stopped and a clear silence replaced it. Daphne looked to her right and sure enough, behind an open door was a hot pink toilet with her name on it. Figuratively of course.

Not even bothering to turn on the lights, Daph rushed in and grabbed either side of the toilet seat, and without a second to spare because all of that fire in her stomach had risen to the surface and was breaking loose.

The adrenaline of the moment was most likely preventing her from actually feeling the burning as it traveled up her throat and pushed over her tongue. She did feel the pain in her lungs from the forced coughing that came from upchucking anxiety, and that was far from pleasant to say the least.

For a few minutes, Daph had made the decision to ignore the fact that her hair was draping over her ears and into the toilet bowl; it wasn't like she could see much in the dark room with eyes clouded by tears.

That is, until the lights clicked on and she was forced to make out the carnage before her, hardly a pretty site to see your hair dipping in vomit; the same hair that was framing either side of her vision. But then she felt a slight tickle on her left ear and then noticed the hair being rescued from drowning in gastric acid. She would take the time to thank her rescuer but her body had yet to let her take a break from spewing fire.

There was a gentle hand rubbing her back as she continued to cough up more fire and then take a second to breathe before the hacking returned. That cycle must've carried on for about seven or eight minutes before Daphne gasped out for air and found that once she had evened out her breathing, the fire didn't force anything up.

Her hero seemed to sense this as well because they're voice sounded and Daph finally realized who it was, "Jesus Daph...like, you got a hair tie?"

Daphne nodded solemnly and pulled one from her wrist, holding it out behind her and not tearing her eyes away from the toilet. The disaster looked less awful now that she wasn't coughing and filling her eyes with salty tears. It was mostly clear, which she figured made sense since she hadn't eaten anything in at least twelve hours.

After her hair had been pulled back into a tight ponytail, Shaggy returned to rubbing her back. He didn't ask any questions or try to break the ice, and Daph was thankful for that; she knew what she wanted to say to him, but it was taking quite a bit of effort to string together how she was gonna say it. After a long state of silence, Daphne finally let out a deep breath - she was ready to pour her heart out, "I remember everything from that night..."

She heard him take in a deep breath as well, "Like, so do I...'

The calmness in his voice was all the prompting Daph needed, "All I can think about it how if we had never stepped foot into that library... then- ... then Fred would have been my first. Or better yet, I wouldn't even be in love with him again." She said that with a soft chuckle, although it was too callous to ease the tension in the room, "I-I don't even know what to feel... my stomach hurts every time I think about us both being forced into that. And my stomach has been hurting all the time so I guess tells you where my head's at."

Shag brought his hands up to her shoulders and Daph wondered if she had a sunburn there because the skin was incredibly warm. "I wish I could say that's just an occupational hazard that, like, comes with the territory of messing with freaky stuff... But this was never in the job description..."

"No," She feels her voice begin to quiver, "It wasn't." She turns around to face him and find that his hands are slightly quivering, "Shag, I don't want what happened to change anything, we're best friends and I don't know what I'd do without you..." He smiles, but it's a sad one; because he can see her biting her lip as she continues, "But, " The words are too hard to say and I have to push them passed my teeth. Like verbal vomit.

"Every time I look at you I- ... I just... Remember kissing you a-and touching you. Feeling you." her cheeks feel hot as the events flash through her mind for the millionth time and all of the looks he gave her that night with brown eyes replace any of the blue eyes that the firewood forced her to see.

Shag looks down at his shaking hands and nods, "Me too..." He says, just above a whisper, and Daph doesn't miss the crack in his voice. That small break is enough to tug a new emotion to the front of Daph's thoughts. Anger. She lets out a frustrated groan before saying, "This isn't fair! If anything was ever gonna happen between us... this- ...This isn't how I would've wanted it to go!" She noticed him flinch at that "If," like the very idea of them being something outside of friends, far away from her very loud feelings for Fred, just completely terrified him.

And as she lingered on it, she found it terrified her too.

So she did something, something incredibly foolish, she wiped any trace of vomit from her mouth and chin on the back of her hand - she'd wash her hands later. And then, with no further warning, she grabbed onto the collar of his t-shirt and brought his chapped lips to rest on her's.

Her aim had been a bit off as she found herself kissing only his bottom lip rather than the full kiss she had wanted. And his nose was poking into her cheek leaving the whole experience to be far from glamorous. But God, her whole body was on fire, and it wasn't the fire that had been burning through her throat just a few minutes ago. It wasn't even the fire she felt when she had kissed Fred for the first time. No, this fire was brand new; coating her whole body in not just comforting warmth. This was a raging heat that was tearing through her, it was screaming out so many things to her and she had no clue how to process any of it. All of those things were shouting out and pulling on her leaving her with a singular thought. "More."

The was enough to send a yelp through her and she pulled away, but the fire was still there, just pulling on her.

Those brown eyes looked down at her with what Daph wanted to say was awe. But with further inspection, she knew that it wasn't awe she recognized - it was terror. And now Daphne knew she had made a mistake, one she could never go back on, one she couldn't fix with a simple apology. She almost wanted to say something, anything, but was struck with fear as his brows furrowed and she realized, 'Oh. He's scowling at me. He's angry with me.'

All her words were gone as he stood up and left the room without saying a word. Daphne stayed there for a few minutes, trying her best to sob silently because no matter how much cold water she splashed on her face she found that the fire was still there and seemed to get stronger the more she thought about the kiss.

"Daph?" All at once, the fire was gone, but in it's stead - that vortex made it's big comeback in her gut. Sniffling, Daphne could only convince one thought to stay in her mind, 'This pain is better.'

And with that, Daphne wiped her puffy, red eyes and walked into the willing embrace of Fred, who instantly showered her with a million questions. She didn't answer a single one.


	11. I'm a sucker for you

Somehow this is worse.

Daphne was emotionally prepared for Shaggy dropping all one-on-one interaction with her.

And for awhile that was what she got.

Blatant avoiding of eye contact, getting up to do literally anything else the moment she entered the room. That clear tension in the air between them felt so loud and obvious to Daph, yet Fred and Velma never seemed to sense any sort of discomfort there.

But the memories still raced through her head a mile a minute; it didn't take much to bring them into her mind.

Fred had mentioned in passing one time that it would be nice if Crystal Cove got some snow for Christmas.

And Daph spent the rest of the day thinking about snowstorms and libraries.

Every time Daphne found herself near the side of the house where everything had gone wrong, that burning fire exploded in her chest. Sometimes she'd wake up in the middle of the night with one thought, 'I want to kiss him again...'

Being close to Fred seemed to calm that raging inferno to an obnoxious heat, replacing it with that dull ache in her stomach.

But that ache was something she understood, it didn't scare her the way that fire did.

So Daphne found that she'd be better off with Shag avoiding her.

But that didn't seem to be a long lasting norm because here they were, alone, in the back of the Mystery Machine with Shaggy offering her a stick of red licorice.

Taken aback, Daphne stared into Shag's brown eyes.

Somber yet determined.

This was his invitation to talk.

And Daph found that you could offer her all the money in the world to not take the sweet from his fingers and she would simply ignore the opportunity and accept the treat.

This was something that Daphne wanted, more than anything else.

He licks his lips and looks downwards, into the bag of rope candies, she's thankful for that because had they continued that stare-down Daph wouldn't have been able to muster a single syllable.

"I don't understand this Daph..." His voice is tired, but he maintains a steady tone.

"It's never been you and me, you know? Fred is like your whole purpose in life, whether that makes you happy or not is none of my business but..." Every word he utters acts like a blade pushing into her skin.

"Like, what happened at the library wasn't something that we can brush off as the start of us 'falling in love' or something. We aren't in love Daphne." Steady and pained - as cruel as his words are, she knows that they are hard for him to say.

"All that stuff that happened, all the stuff I can remember, it's not comforting to me. It's confusing and just makes me sweaty and freaked." She smiles sadly and that seems to bring his gaze back in her direction. Now she's getting stage fright.

"But I could deal with it because I knew that we weren't really in any sort of good decision making state. I can look back on those memories and say, "That's not us." But you kissed me in the bathroom. Not some girl freaked out by hallucinogenic firewood, you. Daphne Blake, sober as a sunrise or whatever."

All the words he said bounced around her skull, finding every hidden message in between those lines. Eventually she was able to suck in a deep breath as the true question emerged.

'Why?'

And for the first time since the whole kissing fiasco had happened, Daphne had an actual answer.

Scooching forward a few inches, Daph looked down into his eyes and prayed that she could hold onto her composure long enough to get it all out.

"You called me an angel."

He raises his eyebrows in confusion, that's to be expected.

"When I first asked Fred if he was proposing to me his response was, "Uhhhhh." And God I was grasping at any loose thread I could find so I could tie them all together into a perfect bow. When I had finally gotten everything I wanted, It felt like my life was stuck standing still."

Shag nodded, understanding the situation because he was right there from the beginning.

"Kissing him felt like I might as well have just high-fived him or something." It was his turn to grin.

"I mean, I know passion isn't one of Freddie's strong suits but I figured that didn't matter because we were in love. I could deal with it."

Now she was getting to the scary part of her explanation, "And then that night in the library happened... and once the whole shocked and embarrassed aura dropped you said I had the lips of an absolute angel."

His eyes lit up in recognition, cheeks turning red.

"You showed me a different type of affection than I am used to..."

The fire was so intense Daph was surprised she hadn't spontaneously combusted yet.

"And that feeling mixed with the fact that I'm trying to give Freddie another chance. It drove me crazy because deep down I know that I want you. I want to give the idea of you a chance, not the one I know is gonna hurt me."

Now his eyes are wide and she wonders if she's a red as he is.

The shock in his eyes and the fidgeting of his hands is drowning out the vortex in her gut completely. Leaving fire and sparks all over her body, and that feeling is what pushes this final line passed her lips.

"The idea of you scares me. Wanting you scares me. Freddie's same old routine is something I know. Something I understand. A-And... maybe- ...I don't want to understand my feelings anymore. Maybe... I want to be scared..."

Her voice is barely above a whisper but she knows her heard it all.

And all of that hangs over their heads while she's forced to feel her heard pound against her chest. Focusing on the stick residue left on her hands from squeezing the licorice too tightly.

Then she is pulled in by his hands resting on her shoulders and the sweet treat is abandoned so she can wrap her arms around his neck and better reciprocate the kiss he's giving her.

All of that lightening and fire have evolved in fireworks sounding in her ears and she can barely breathe because of how terrified she is.

All of the explosions and gasping for breath build up into a perfect silence as she rests her head on his shoulder and relishes in the fact that the fire has died completely and all that is left is Shag nuzzling into her hair.

"Scared?"

She just manages to breathe out.

"Terrified."

He whispers against her neck.


	12. I don't trust myself when I'm around you

Daphne can't seem to stop biting her lip.

Barely even registering the sting until Freddie so kindly points out that her lip is bleeding; she manages to brush this off as being caused by the damn avalanche she survived just a few days ago.

She is currently lounging on the couch in the living room of the house the four of them share, the aforementioned blond sitting beside her.

He's been spending the past couple of days since they arrived home trying to track down the love of his life, whom he was forced to part with in a garage sale. Daph didn't see much point in reminding him that they had a perfectly fine stick shift sitting in their garage right now. The whole clutch/emergency brake fiasco has left him bitter.

Velma had only emerged from the home office maybe twice all day - both of those times being Shaggy forcing her to eat something before the wind blew her away.

Shag and Scoob had been known to just set up shop in the kitchen for most of the day. Saved a lot of back and forth from their bedroom to the fridge. Scooby had already somehow opened the door and was dragging out any leftover that was in sight.

Shag, on the other hand, was sitting at the kitchen table staring down at his hands.

Which was enough to tell Daph that his mind was racing.

All of this business with Vincent had dredged up bad memories for the both of them. The second Daphne laid her head down on her own pillow her mind was instantly plagued with the thought, "The 13th Ghost is still out there…"

And at that point Daph had abandoned the idea of sleep.

She can't speak for Shag but she's certain she's seen the kitchen light on until the wee hours of the morning.

But this isn't the thing that affects Daphne the most; she'd spent almost nine years thinking about that 13th ghost they never found. The thing that bothered Daphne was the feelings she had buried for nearly a decade.

She was in the dark, falling yet floating at the same time, never reaching the ground.

Someone was calling her name and she could hear the urgency in their voice, the worry.

Something rough and wet ran up her cheek and she was immediately back in the light, taking in a deep gulp of air. That worried voice calling her name let out a relived chuckle and placed a large hand on her shoulder, helping her sit up.

That was the first time Daphne had ever seen Shaggy cry on her behalf.

Not even turning into a werewolf and chasing him down the tunnels brought tears to his eyes.

She hadn't forgotten any of it. Every little detail about that moment was imprinted in her mind and it was all telling her one thing.

'He cares for you.'

'You care for him.'

And the second that realization came to her, Daphne pushed it back to the furthest corner of her mind - praying that she'd forget all about it.

She wasn't very good at doing that.

It didn't take her all but a few hours to have her fingers tangled up in his hair while hoping that no canines or con-children or warlocks barged in on them.

For those few, blissful, months Daphne was absolutely giddy.

Every waking moment was spent with the boy she now knows she also cares about a great deal. Due to the constant entourage, physical contact was kept at a minimum; but even without the touching Daphne's heart was full. Every time they did so much as hold eye contact for longer than five seconds she felt like her chest was about to burst.

'What is this?'

She'd ask herself, already knowing damn well what it was.

But then the stress started to press down on them, and they found themselves being overwhelmed by the nightmares. No amount of embracing or kissing could calm it down.

They practically got down on their knees and begged Vincent to just let it be over, they were just kids and they couldn't take it anymore.

Perhaps he saw how broken they had become, already fragile to begin with.

But when they returned to Coolsville, Daphne didn't get the happy boyfriend and girlfriend lifestyle she had been dreaming of since she first kissed him.

Instead, he locked himself up in his room and didn't seem interested in talking.

Not to her.

Not to his family.

Not even to Scooby.

Fred and Velma didn't return from their camps for another several weeks.

Still, Daph kept calling, nearly everyday. His family had gotten well acquainted with her over the phone, always having to softly tell her that Shaggy wasn't up to leaving his bed at the moment.

Which was every moment.

Of every day.

During this time boys would ask her out on dates, and while most of her wanted to say no, her prime reason for saying no wasn't speaking to her.

So she spent her summer bowling and roller skating and eating Italian food, only to return home late at night and cry when the boy she wanted still wouldn't come to the phone.

It was two weeks until summer came to a close when Shag's mom said, "Oh yes he's right here…. Norville! Daphne Blake's on the line!"

"….Hi…"

The moment she heard his voice her heart nearly popped out of her chest.

"Shags! Oh my gosh I've been so worried about you!"

She hears a soft chuckle and the corners of her lips go straight up; that chuckle outshines any date she went on in the past two months.

"Like, I've just been strapped to my bed at the ol' Rogers' Kook House."

"Do - do you uh….. Do you wanna go get some burgers? Last week Ricky McMasters took me to this new little joint that make these cool veggie burgers."

"Are you for real?"

"100% sweetheart."

The excitement in his voice is causing her face and ears to go warm.

"Sign me the hell up!"

And so they met at the restaurant and ordered, they talked and laughed and Daphne found herself hardly touching her food.

It was when she made a grab for his hand that things finally went wrong.

He dodged, locking eyes with her as his cheeks went red

"Shag.. wha- what's wrong?"

She schooches her chair closer.

He moves his further back.

And then he looks down at his hands on the table.

It's silent for a few moments and Daph realizes she's absolutely terrified.

Mainly because she knows what's about to happen.

After he sucks in a deep breath he begins, still looking down at the table, ""Daph… those months we spent… together were some of the best months of my life." Daphne smiles.

"Same here."

He licks his lips before continuing, "And, during all of that I was convinced I was ready. Ready to stop holding my breath and just love you."

Her heartbeat drops to her stomach. How long was he in love with her? How long was she in love with him?

Shag's fingers begin to clench around the tablecloth, "Vincent was promising us that he'd take care of the last ghost and all I could think was that I got a whole summer left to be with you." She wants to say 'Me too." But doesn't wanna interrupt him.

"But then," His voice is going soft and she can tell he's trying to be gentle, "When we did finally get home the nightmares didn't stop. The fear that something was out there and after me - after you - didn't go away."

Finally, he brings his gaze up to her and those brown eyes leave her so weak, "How could I deal with all of this, cope with and get it under control and love you at the same time? I'm seventeen for fucks sake. I still brake at a yellow light and get an allowance."

Suddenly, she get's it.

All those dates and all that crying had been her "coping" of sorts but had she really gotten anywhere waiting day after day for Shag to pick up the phone?

He can probably see the tears welling in her eyes because he leans forward to whisper, "Just…. give me some time. Could be a week could be a month, hell, it could be a year but maybe when I'm ready… we can try this again. Without ending up as each other's therapy dogs."

She giggles and feels a tear roll down her cheek, "Yeah, " she sniffles, "I'd like that."

Now she was leaning over him as he tapped his fingers against the hard wood of the table.

"Having fun?" She says softly, he looks up at her with a smirk.

"Just peachy Miss Blake."

"Well I am just glad to hear that." She pulls out a chair and chuckles as their banter picks up an exaggerated Southern drawl.

They sit there for what seems like forever just giggling and looking at each other before Daph musters up the bravery to break the quiet, "Nine years huh?"

And even though it is the most cryptic and simple phrase, Shag's face goes beet red and she know he understands what she's saying. Because only Shaggy Rogers could understand something as basic as two words implying so much more. It's then that Daphne knows shoving those feelings down to the back of her mind hadn't stopped a thing.

If anything, they've grown, matured and are much more powerful.

Maybe sixteen year old her had wanted to only wait a week but now she was thankful to have grown into this love she holds for him

Now she wonders if he'd let her kiss him, and would she ever bother to come up for air?

Or would she just let herself suffocate, only able to comprehend the shape of him?

He rubs the back of his neck, acutely aware of her biting her lip, "It's funny… like before all this craziness with Farmer Morgan I was gonna ask you if you wanted to go to that same burger place again. Like, they've got a whole menu of veggie burgers now. I hear they have one that's just a stuffed mushroom! Doesn't that sound fucking extraordinary?!"

As his eyes begin to sparkle and his lips flap, blabbing on about food, Daphne reaches up and grabs either side of his face, bringing them nose to nose.

He lets out a soft gasp, Daph's heartbeat is pounding around in her head, "If I say yes, will you finally kiss me?"

His face is red again and she is 100% sure her's is even worse.

"Keep in mind I will say yes regardless of what you-"

Shaggy doesn't even let her finish the sentence, only letting give out a soft "Mmph!" in surprise.

Nine years in the making and Daphne can definitely say it was worth the wait.


	13. I wish that I could travel his way

"Now Daphne..."

Daphne let out a simple moan to ensure her aunt that she was listening, seeing as she wasn't really in the mood to lift her head up from her desk. She could hear Aunt Sarah let out an exaggerated sigh before moving on, "I don't want you leaving the house on any ridiculous ventures. Just think how your parents will feel when they return and hear all the rumors of their lovely daughter going about the town with some scruffy hooligan!"

It's the kind title, "hooligan" that convinces her to pry her forehead from the wood to glare.

"My parents are just as willing to call the President of the United States, "scruffy" than some beggar off the streets. Monetary value has never been a deciding factor for them, you of all people should know that Aunt _Sarah_." Daphne draws out the "ah" in Sarah and the clear look of offense decorating her aunt's face brings a small smile to her own.

After recovering from the burst of attitude from her young niece, Sarah clears her throat curtly and brushes off the imaginary dirt from her spotless frock.

"Rather than gallivanting around with the riff raff, you will finish the last of your arithmetic. When that is done we will have an early supper and you will pick out some suitable church-going clothes. You will then turn in for the night. It's time you started acting like the perfectly beautiful little lady your parents refer to you as." Daphne had a number of complaints on the tip of her tongue but Sarah had already slammed and locked the door by the time her sentence was over.

'Suitable church-going clothes?' Daphne wondered.

Was she implying that Daphne's fashion sense was far too frivolous for the Good Lord? Or was her fashion sense too drab?

Daphne had arrived home just the other night with a sizable tear in her dress and now her dear aunt seemed to believe that her niece had the capabilities of a chubby toddler. She might well have child-proofed the whole house.

While spending all of her life shut up in the beautiful world of luxury and pampering had left her rather naive to the culture of the rest of the world, Daphne was hardly helpless. Just clueless, and a tad clumsy.

The more she stared down at the paper the more she found herself missing him.

All it took was one day, lost and alone in the middle of the city, for her to see just how much the world had to offer her beyond the stately mansions she was familiar with.

Horns honking and people shouting, the smells of bakeries and car exhaust mixing to form a scent that made her stomach churn.

Daphne loved it.

He was different than what she was used to, not exactly rude or callous, but it never seemed like he saw her as something special.

Of course never hesitating to tease her over her pampered upbringing; even then the jabs were never mean-spirited.

He'd make an offhanded joke about her parents, "Kicken' her to the curb." as soon as her new baby sibling was born. Daphne stared at him shocked for a few seconds before he chuckled and elbowed her upper arm.

"Like, I'm just messin' around pidge."

They were definitely an odd pair to see strolling along the street; a beautiful red-headed girl with a flowing, embroidered, purple silk dress, and a tall, bedraggled young man in tattered up rags. But Daphne didn't care, she found herself rather amused by all the stares extended their way.

This was the first time people had stopped and stared at her without the usual accompaniment of "oohs" and "ahs."

Of course it was all brought to an abrupt end when a police buggy honked at them and pulled up next to them. First shooing her companion away and informing her that her Aunt Sarah was worried sick.

"Doubtful." Daphne thought as she began to twirl the pencil with her fingers, relieved that her parent's vacation had only one week left.

The summer breeze was drifting through her open window and Daphne found it was the only thing keeping her awake. Although a nap was becoming very tempting since the other option was to listen to her dictator of a relative.

As the wind pushed strands of hair into her face so it could reach the shell of her ear, Daphne perked up.

She could just barely make out a whistling tickling the back of her neck.

A very distinct whistling to be accurate.

Her chair screeched against the wood floors as she pushed it back to give her room to stand. She then ran to the window with a bright grin on her face and pushed the glass shutters all the way open.

Sure enough, there he was coolly strutting down the street and whistling a simple tune. One she had memorized after hearing him belt it out so many times.

Daphne chuckled as she saw him stop just before her house and bend down to pick up their newspaper, examining the cover.

He must've heard her laugh because his eyes shot straight up and to her's.

And then they widened.

"Pigeon? What are you doing in there?!" He calls out, walking across their front lawn toward her.

Daphne's heartbeat picks up as she replies, "I live here." She has no clue why her smile has gotten so big. As if to mirror her smile, Shaggy lets out a giggle, "Well I'll be damned... I knew you were rich but... Do you know how many times I've passed by this house and dreamed of living in it one day?"

Daphne rested her elbows on the window sill and leaned out as far as she could.

"It's a lot less dreamy when it's been used as my prison for the passed month.'

"Than please, like by all means, arrest me."

He's about two steps closer to her than she was prepared for, close enough for her to make out the difference between dirt and bruises.

His proximity and confident line leave her chest feeling hot and she still can't knock the smile off her face. During all this, she finds that she's still leaning in closer, determined to count every freckle hidden under all the grime. Unfortunately, such stunts never end well when it comes to Daphne Blake and within a few seconds she's tumbling out the window and crashing on top of Shaggy.

Who lets out a mixture of a groan and a laugh.

Daphne attempts to locate her legs among the sea of fabric from her skirt and tries to stand up, doing it too fast and falling back down to the ground in the other direction.

Now she can hear Shaggy's laughter dancing along with her annoyingly loud heartbeat.

"Ah pidge..." He says, laughter still evident in his voice, "I know it's only been a day but man did I miss you." She realizes that he's standing over her and offering out his hand.

That heat in her chest has spread all the way out to the tips of her ears.

A five course meal couldn't leave her feeling as full as his words did.

She lets out a sigh and gently takes his hand, yelping as he pulls her to her feet quickly.

It's then that Daphne is aware of all the noise they made because she hears the muffled voice of her aunt coming from the study, "Daphne?! What in the Dickens... where did that child run off to?!"

Shaggy is staring at the window, prepared to be yelled at by the prejudiced older woman, but Daphne tightens her grip on his hand and says, "I missed you too."

He locks eyes with her for only a moment before grinning and leading her down the street.

As dear Aunt Sarah's yells begin to fill the neighborhood and summon people from their homes to see what all the fuss is about, the two kids let out loud laughs.

Not letting go of each other's hands until they're far away from the beautiful houses.


	14. Block-Long Jealousy

"You're scowling Daphne."

"Am I? I can't think of a reason why."

Daph can taste the poison in her words but Velma doesn't recoil, instead gracing her with an eye-roll before taking a seat next to her. She examines the red head for a moment, trying not to laugh at the way she's biting her lip, before following her gaze.

Laughter vanishing from her throat.

Shaggy is several feet away, just casually leaning against the Mystery Machine and scratching Scooby's head. Leaning next to him is the lovely acrobat Mei, who incidentally forgot to turn off her heart eyes.

Her and Shag seem to be having a lively conversation but knowing her friend, they could be talking about anything from dog treats to rubber ducks.

Velma would say that it's nice to see Shag so relaxed after solving a mystery, normally he'd just beg the gang to head back to the hotel so he could go lay down.

But the grim look on Daphne's face suggests so many things, things that prevent Velms from being happy for him.

For once, she doesn't have a thing to say.

The information she's just been whacked in the face with has given her whiplash.

Oddly enough, it's Daphne who breaks the silence with a soft sigh and then a laugh, "He's a nice person, i-it only makes sense that this girl would go all gaga for him in 0.2 seconds." Velma only nods, still trying to reprogram everything she knew about Daphne Blake with this simple tidbit. So simple yet it changes everything.

"You're in love with Shaggy?"

Velma wished somebody slapped her in the face for saying that out loud.

She'd ask Fred but there was no way he'd ever use violence on a girl; he was old fashioned like that.

Daphne lets out a little cough and Velms is floored at the sight of her going bright-red. So it wasn't just a wild assumption, wires weren't crossing in Velma's brain, this was every bit as real as the giant rubber duck sitting in the middle of the road.

The shock is shuffled to the back of her mind as the sound of a loud giggle, a little too loud to be genuine, coming from the pair leaning against the van.

This time, Daph groans and hides her face in her hair before leaning down and tucking her head on her knees.

"I'm so pathetic right? This girl hasn't done anything illegal and I've been nothing but catty to her. I'm supposed to be better than that." The whole statement is a bit muffled but Velma is able to make it out and nods, awkwardly patting her shoulder. This really is more Fred's area of expertise, not romance by any means of the word, but comforting is second nature to him.

Her first instinct when she walked up to Daphne was to mock her.

And even now the only things she can think to say are teasing words.

"H-"

Her voice cracks and she's so upset with herself.

"How long?"

Daphne doesn't bother to emerge from from her hair as she replies, "I'm sure this has been a "since forever" kinda thing. But I didn't notice it until it started getting this intense."

Velms gives out another series of pats before saying, "Daph that's not really an answer."

Exactly why is Velma trying so hard to get her to talk about it? No idea. Maybe being with Freddie every moment of the day has brushed off.

Daph lets out a whine before sitting back up again, the tears streaming down her cheeks throw Velma for an absolute loop.

She doesn't even bother to wipe them away, simply letting her mascara and eyeliner smudge, as she says, "Do you remember that vacation to Paris? And Shag and Scoob ended up in the Himalayas by mistake?"

Velma nodded, she had yet to let Shaggy forget the time he got on a cargo plane instead of a passenger one, it was almost impossible to make a mistake that huge.

"It was when I realized, or noticed or whatever, how much he means to me."

Neither of them say anything after that, Daphne needs the air to cry and Velma needs to recount every detail from that whole Yeti fiasco.

All Velma can do is stare at their lanky companion as he bashfully rubs the back of his neck. Mei is definitely not holding back on the flirtations now, resting a hand on his shoulder as she takes a step closer to him.

His cheeks are red, she can hear his voice crack from all the way over where they're sitting, and Daphne is in love with him.

All of those facts are spinning in succession in Velma's head and she keeps stating those details as fact so as to remind herself this isn't a dream.

And then she hears Daph sniffle before letting out a shaky gasp.

She turns her attention back to her and sees that she's biting her lip so as to hold back anything audible.

Although the red, puffy eyes definitely say it all.

Velma lets her go on, knowing Daphne would rather cry in silence right now instead of making a big scene.

But all it takes is a quick glance in their direction for Shaggy to see Daph's sorry state.

"Shit."

Daphne whispers under her breath as she leans down to wipe her eyes, mascara now decorating most of her right cheek.

Velms looks back toward the van only to see Shag walking towards them, Mei crossing her hands behind her back and looking down at her feet. She definitely wasn't sure what to think at the moment.

And poor Daphne was at a complete loss, having no clue what to do and only having a couple of seconds to look at Velma and plead for help before their giant friend was already kneeling down in front of her.

"Hey... Daph are alright?"

He speaks softly up at Daph and Velma is suddenly floored because she never realized so many things about Daphne Blake and now they all make so much sense.

Daphne lets out another shaky sigh before replying, "I-I...it's just- ... I'm still in shock. From the-...the dragon." She lets out a relieved breath when she finishes the sentence, clearly struggling to string words together.

Even then she's able to muddle together a some what believable lie.

Shaggy looks up at her for a second, brow furrowed, and he sends Velma a quick glance. Most likely wondering why she was just sitting there and staring at them without making any effort to comfort Daph. And then he remembered that this was Velma and her consoling skills stopped at shoulder pats.

Velms took his disappointed gaze as a sign that she could leave, not really sure if she could walk in a straight line. Processing all this information was blue-screening her mind.

Shaggy barely gave her a second glance as she stumbled over to the van.

Daph's sniffles demanding his utmost attention.

"Like, it's not real anymore Daphne..."He's caught off-guard by her grabbing onto his hand, as if afraid he's gonna follow Velma. He only needs to look at their joined hands for a second before he tightens the grip and continues, "Believe me, there are so many times I've had trouble reminding myself that something can't hurt me anymore."

Daphne nods, not even remotely affected by the giant, paper dragon that attacked them; although she was a little scared when it got close to hurting Shag and Scoob.

But she would much rather let him think she was scared than let him know she was jealous; especially when she had no right to be.

As much as she wished it, Shaggy wasn't her's and she didn't have any business glaring at the girls that giggled a little too loudly at his jokes. They all needed something to take their minds off of fear, and if this helped Shaggy then by all means he should go for it.

And yet, more than anything Daphne wants to be able to hold onto his hand this tightly all the time. And she's not sure she could survive watching somebody else do it.

She knows there's a simple solution to her troubles.

She just needs to tell him.

But it can never seem to manifest anywhere beyond her thoughts; the mere idea of it escaping her lips seems impossible.

So all she can really do is cry and greedily squeeze his hand, knowing that a girl who is brave enough to outwardly care about him is watching.

Indeed that girl is watching, and she can see every fragment of the story weaving together. Yes, this Daphne girl is in love with Shaggy - rather obviously even though nobody else seems aware of it. But that's only half of a love story, Shaggy still has his half to add.

It's possible he's not even conscious of his feelings for Daphne, perhaps they don't effect him as strongly. But they are definitely there; in the way he looks at her and says her name - Mei can clearly see the way he tightens his grip on her hand.

She finds herself sighing, he really was very nice - a one in a million kinda guy.

But his story with Daphne was years in the making and Mei didn't want to be the one to run a dagger down their tapestry.

So she waves a goodbye to Fred and Velma before making her way down the street.

Leaving Shag to stroke his thumb across Daph's knuckle and let her get all of the tears out. Incidentally, he forgot to turn off his heart eyes.


	15. The Meddling Kids in the Car

Darkness.

Silence.

Pain shooting through his leg.

And then he hears grunting, someone struggling to breathe; he can sense tears trying force their way to the front.

Shag realizes that the darkness is being caused by his eyes being shut.

When he does open his eyes he finds that the darkness is barely improved; his world being illuminated by a single car light above him.

It's that observation that tells him he's in a car, and after further investigation he can see that he's cramped up in the back seat. That tells him this isn't the Mystery Machine or any other form of big car, any small car never has enough leg room for him.

The next observation he makes is that the sounds of struggle from before were coming from the front seat. Shaggy directs his attention towards the front and only needs a moment to spot an orange turtle-neck.

"Velms?"

When he speaks his tongue feels like sand paper and the air is almost damp when he breathes it in.

How long has he been out?

His brunette friend turns to look at him and he sees her face light up, he also notices a large, purple bruise on her temple.

"Shag holy shit! I thought your were dead for a second there." She says this with a chuckle in her voice and her eyes begin to tear up. She leans back in the driver's seat and smiles brightly at him, making him worry that he had been out for longer than a couple hours.

Now that his brain is finally orienting itself he takes another crack at examining his surroundings.

"Like sorry to disappoint..." He says softly and earns another chuckle from Velma.

He can definitely confirm that they are in a small car.

And judging by the darkness around the windows it's late at night.

They must be locked in the car or something because Velma was trying to force open the the driver's side door. But cars can't be kept locked from the inside, there should be a way for her to unlock it.

And why was it so damn hot?

Shaggy hadn't realized it at first but it was definitely sweltering; sweat was dripping from his brow and his breathing had become labored.

Then he took a closer look out the window next to him - his blood went cold.

"Ve- Velma? Whe-Where are we?"

Velma stares somberly at him and takes a deep breath, as if trying to keep her emotions in check, "We're underground. Buried alive."

Hour One:

"What's the last thing you remember Shag?"

Her words kinda echo for a second, he keeps trying to pull his body out of a state of panic because in a cramped area like this that could result in death.

How many hours had they been in here?

How many hours did they have left?

"Shaggy!"

He jumps and looks back at her, suddenly remembering that she had asked him something.

He runs a hand through his hair, "I-...I-uh...remember we were at the haunted amusement park looking for Ferdinand the Torture Clown and-"

"That's not his name."

"It's a better name, don't interrupt me or I'll forget what I was talking about." Velma rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, her version of admitting defeat.

"Like, thank you. And... um Freddie had us split up. You and me plus Scoob - him and Daph?" She nodded and he continued, "So like, you and I were at the employee parking for the clown rental shop just outside of the park. You were on one side and I was on the other." He looks down at his lap to sigh, he's been short of breath since he woke up.

"I-... I remember you calling me over to see something but... by the time I got to where you were you were passed out and on the ground. Like, I didn't even get a second to process before I heard a honk and saw bright lights. Th- That's all I can remember."

Velms nods, "That matches up with my memories. Somebody came up from behind right after I called for you and then clocked me in the head." She points up to her lovely bruise, "And then they must've sauntered off and waited for you so they could run you over."

"What?!"

Velms raises an eyebrow at him, "You know? Like with a car?"

"I got run over by a car?!"

"Well dur, did you think that nasty number on your leg was from me?"

Shaggy can't believe his ears, he follows Velma's gesture toward his left leg and instantly feels sick. It's bent unnaturally and on top of the lovely mixture of dirt and blood its got going on, it's also leaking some sort of pus that is making his stomach churn.

It's right then that the pain coming from his leg registers, and it must show on his face because Velma steps in, "The adrenaline must've been distracting you from the pain..."

He groans, knowing he shouldn't touch it but desperately wants to do something with it.

"Agh! I-Is is supposed to hurt this much?"

Velma bite her lips for a moment, "I-...I don't know. I've never been run over by a car."

He glares at her.

"But it's probably gonna get worse in these conditions."

With that, he attempts to move in a more comfortable position, and the pain from the movement causes him to scream.

Hour Two:

"How much air do you think we have?"

"Judging by how long we've been in here, the size of the car and a couple hours to count the amount of time we were unconscious; I'd say five...maybe six hours at the greatest."

"Like, fantastic."

They're silent for a few moments after that, and Shag finds that the quiet above ground and the quiet below are very different.

He's hating the below ground one so far because it's giving him the head-space to count out the minutes till his death.

And whenever Velma feels the need to break the silence, it feels so much louder now.

"Who do you think did this to us Shag?"

He sighs and gestures up toward the sky, however far up it may be, "I don't fucking know- my best guess is our good friend Ferdinand but this seems like something above his pay-grade."

A clown skipping around and turning off roller-coasters suddenly burying two teenagers alive seems like a huge leap. Leaps from dangerous pranks to actual life or death situations were rarely made, and Velma couldn't picture their mask doing this.

"Yeah, I mean clearly this guy is trying to shut down the park because once it's shut down the land will be at it's lowest."

"Like it's always something with real-estate..."

This quiet is awful.

They can't even hear bugs chirping.

No sign of life except for them struggling to breathe.

Velma takes another look towards their main problem, breaking the quiet once more, "How's your leg?"

Shag also sends a glance its way, hating just how bad it looked, "Like it's doing great, the pus is really coming along."

Velms frowns at him and he can tell something is on her mind, but it's something she's gotta say gently. Otherwise she would've already blurted it out. She sighs before speaking, "It's swelled up a lot in the past hour..."

"Well yeah, it did come face-to-face with a damn tire." He musters up a grin, because he hopes that'll help Velma deliver the bad news.

Her mouth is set in a grim line as she stares at his leg for a few more seconds, gulping as she replies, "I just hope it's not because of infection..."

Shit.

He had forgotten that was a thing.

"And if it is?"

This time it's Velma trying to summon the smile, her's is far less convincing, "It's gonna be a tough few hours."

At that moment the only thing Shag can think is, 'Don't hyperventilate. Don't hyperventilate.'

Velma can see that all over his face, "Shaggy if you start to panic then we'll be out of air a lot faster."

"You think I don't know that?!" He almost wheezes that statement out, "Not like it matters anyway. We have no clue where we're buried and there's no way that Fred and Daphne will know that we're under the ground!"

Velma bites her lip and looks away from him, wiping sweat from the bridge of her nose.

She's not used to being the optimist in any situation, but neither is Shaggy. They both find that it's impossible to put a positive spin on anything, but Shag's leg isn't doing too well and if Velma doesn't bring the mood up he's gonna start panicking.

She needs to distract him.

"Ou- There's always the chance that Fred and Daph catch our guy, and if he's the one who shoved us down here then Fred will get it out of him."

He rubs his forehead and chuckles, "Yeah... if Daph doesn't kill him first."

She closes her eyes and smiles, "Indeed."

Shaggy follows her lead and shuts his eyes, letting his head lean back against the window.

Pushing his hands into his pockets and letting his fingers trace over every item. He can feel assorted pieces of paper, candy wrappers most likely, his Commander Cool wallet from way back in grade school, that's definitely a Scooby Snack in his left pocket. For the first time in his life, he's starving but not in the mood to eat - won't do much good in a dead body.

He'll offer it to Velma in a minute.

Pessimistic as she can be, he knows that she has huge faith in Fred and is more convinced than him that their leader will be able to connect all the missing dots.

As smart as Fred and Daphne are, there are too many unpredictable details to make up for.

Suddenly, something pops into his head, he has a cell phone.

He releases his right hand to search his back pocket, relieved to feel the warm plastic at his fingertips. Shaggy grabs it and takes a good look at it; it's surprisingly not cracked or scratched - at least there are no new cracks or scratches.

He presses the on button and sure enough, the screen lights up, instantly greeting him with Daphne's bright eyes as Scooby licks her cheek.

She was cackling when the photo was taken, and as loud and extra as Daphne's laugh could be, Shaggy couldn't deny how beautiful she looked when she did laugh.

It provides some sort of comfort, in spite of the lack of reception he has.

Those violet eyes seem to relax every nerve in his body, he remembers choosing to make this his lock-screen. He had ran the risks through his head over and over again.

What if anybody sees?

What if Daphne sees?

What are they gonna think?

But, in the end, he lost the battle to those eyes.

Shaggy smiles fondly at the photo, almost forgetting he was in his coffin, but is interrupted by a gasp.

"You've had your phone this whole time?!" Velma cries out, forcing Shag to tear his gaze away from Daphne. "Like, calm down Velms, it doesn't have any sort of signal."

She stares at him for a moments before saying, "You don't have the FM radio thing? It comes pre-installed in most phones."

Shag raises an eyebrow at her, "And then we can do what, listen to the game? Radio and walkie-talkie are two different things." Frowning, Velma bites her lip - trying to gather her thoughts.

Hour Three:

Their breaths are becoming shorter, he can hear just how shallow Velma's inhales are, and the back of his throat is dry and burning.

Velms has already abandoned her turtle-neck as well as her glasses, which wouldn't stop fogging up. "Fuck it, I'd rather make the choice to be blind."

Shaggy had been spending the seconds alternating between looking at the picture of Daphne for sanity's sake, and then looking down at the state of his leg.

Also for the sake of sanity, but in a different way.

Looking at Daph helped him feel at peace on his "deathbed" while looking at his leg reminded his that he would probably never see her again.

He had cut off the leg of his pants all the way up to the knee with a box-cutter Velma had found in the glove compartment, so as to better see the damage. It was safe to say it wasn't healing in any way, the swelling had gone up noticeably as well as the pain.

Velms couldn't really do much about it, just sigh and rub her forehead.

Neither of them saw much purpose in bringing up the bright-side, they had been here for a long time - long enough for reality to set in.

They had seen the last of the world just a few hours ago and now the last thing they were ever going to see was each other.

"Do you take me for granted?"

Velma lets out a soft "hmmm" before saying, "Yeah probably."

He nods, even though she isn't looking at him.

"But you can't hold that against me."

"And why ever not?"

She chuckles and turns back to squint at him, he knows that doesn't help any, and says, "Shag, I have known you almost my whole life right?"

He nods again but isn't sure if she can see that so he says, "At least."

Velma smirks and continues, "In that time I have found there to be one consistent fact. Nobody thinks less of Shaggy Rogers than Shaggy Rogers."

The sentence leaves him kind of winded, as if he wasn't winded enough from the lack of air, and he's left to ponder it. Velma turns back toward the front, she had said her piece and she had nothing left to throw out. Not like she had to worry about being sensitive with him, the only punishment she'd receive is him ignoring her.

Which works.

Silence being the last thing she remembers, the only peaceful moment in her life.

Shaggy is staring up at the car light, black dots appearing and fading with every blink, left to contemplate so many things and knowing that it won't do any good.

At this point even the tedious ticking of a clock would be comforting, he was getting tired of listening to his own heavy breathing.

The glaring 57% battery life was mocking him, showing him how much time he had left with Daphne and Scoob before the screen would go dark and he'd never see them again. He heard Velma groan as she turned to look back at him, seeing her slide on her glasses through his periphiral.

"Shag what time is it?"

He didn't answer, the 57% had just gone down to 56% and now Shaggy was thinking about mortality and how he didn't have a charger to bring him back to life.

Velma rolled her eyes and leaned forward, yanking Shag's phone out of his hand.

"Velms! Like what the hell?!" He attempted to grab it back but she was already out of reach, he winced as he leaned a little too far forward and his leg pulsed.

She raises her eyebrows, feeling bad for causing that pain, but keeping her tongue sharp, "I was asking you what time it was, I repeated myself like three fuckin' times."

Shaggy rolled his eyes and leaned back against the door, breathing through his nose and waiting for the pain to subside.

It wasn't.

But it's not like it mattered anyway.

Velma huffed and turned her attention to the phone, pressing the on button and wishing her skirt had pockets that would have been able to hold her phone. Sucking in a deep breath at the sight of Daphne looking back at her.

Without even looking at the time, Velma brought her gaze to her tall friend.

His eyes were closed as he concentrated on ignoring the pain.

Now Velma knew that a lock screen photo could mean anything, any number of things besides the one thing she's thinking of.

But as she's looking at Shaggy right now she can just feel what this picture means to him, why it's there and why he's been spending the last hours of their lives looking at it.

Daphne huh?

She can't help but smile, because she's learned a thing or two about Shaggy - but she's also known a thing or two about Daphne.

Velma chooses not to say anything, deciding not to curse Shag with the information that he's part of a doomed romance.

Hour Four:

They're at the point where labored breathing can be changed to desperate gasps every few minutes, lungs panicking and searching for air before realizing the supply was just low - not gone.

Velma has been mentally counting out the minutes for the past one-hundred or so, resisting the urge to suck in deep breaths.

"Shags... what is that?"

Her voice is so quiet, they haven't spoken to each other for nearly forty-five minutes and he had almost forgotten what she sounded like.

"Like, what?"

He just barely wheezes that out.

"W-...What is that?"

She points to the car's control panel in front of her, the small, grey rectangle resting on top of it to be precise.

"It's a GPS."

The earns a gasp as she leans forward in her chair and pops her glasses back on, "Oh my word I am so damn stupid! It's been here the whole fucking time and I didn't even notice it!"

Shaggy is surprised she can still summon the energy to shout, or be mad with herself.

He watches as she examines the device, tracing her fingers over each edge - clearly looking for something. She lets out a loud, triumphant laugh as her search merits pleasing results, he assumes as much at least.

"Care to share anything with the class Velms?"

With a grunt and a cackle, Velma crawls over to the passenger side and he hears the pops of the glove compartment being opened.

"This GPS is connected to satellite, real rich shit for sure. And as it just so happens, we have a little green van out there with a spunky navigation system that takes in almost any information sent it's way." She groans and slams the compartment shut as she turns her search to the small storage space between the driver's and passenger's seats.

"If I can remember the signal our good-for-nothing GPS is on than I could send out our coordinates or something whatever this is only a half plan." She has yet to even look up at him, searching for he doesn't even know what.

"Wait... Velms even if we're able to send out the longitude and latitude higgledy piggledy, how do we know Fred and Daphne will know it's us? How are they supposed to know we're sending this from however many feet beneath the earth's surface?" Velma doesn't answer, still not looking up from her goal.

And this makes him angry, the hairs on the back of his neck rising as he clenches his hands into fists.

Without thinking, he reaches forward and grabs onto the collar of Velma's sweater, tugging her toward him, "Look at me! AaGh!"

He immediately withdraws and rubs at his leg, seeing that the redness that originally just surrounded the wound has now traveled up his leg and under his pant-leg. He can see the blood that was clotting now trailing down his calf and onto the seat.

Any form of movement sends Shaggy waves of pain and there's nothing he can do but try not to scream. All of the pressing pain feels like fire in every place he can think of, this was like nothing else he'd ever felt.

Was this his body finally shutting down?

For now he bites down on his index finger as he feels tears stream down his cheeks.

His brain repeating over and over again, 'You're dying. This is it.'

It's pushing against his skull with the force of a bullet and more than anything he wants to scream out for it all to stop.

'I'm not ready!'

That final thought just barely manages to be louder than the rest, not getting a repeat or an echo.

And it's enough to leave Shag feeling cold; freezing.

"Shaggy... I-"

"I'm nuts about Daphne!" He sobs out, not even bothering to hold it back.

He almost feels like laughing at Velma's silence, finally she has nothing to say, "I'm over the moon, crazy stupid in love with her."

Amazingly, she still says nothing.

Shaggy chuckles and wipes the tears from his face, "Like, aaahh... I love her voice and her laugh - oh my gosh do I love her laugh. And her eyes might as well just be some sort of stun gun for me. Sh-She's so confident all the time and so smart - Zoinks she's a genius, and I hate that she lets people talk down to her so much."

He wonders if she's staying silent so he can get all of this out, because he's not really sure when this will stop, if it'll ever stop.

He's been holding it in for a long time.

"So-Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night 'cause I'm completely terrified that she believes all the bad things people say about her." His profession of love and need to start sobbing have been battling it out in his throat and it's becoming really hard to even string words together, "Velms she's so fucking amazing and... I-I could never be with somebody as awesome as her but..."

The words won't even come out anymore, just tears and shaky gasps.

Velma bites her lip as she sees the inner-turmoil that's taking over her best friend.

She leans forward and lightly rests her hand on his uninjured leg, "Shags... tell me what to do."

Shaggy locks eyes with her and through his blurry vision he can see that she's got a somber look on her face, her mouth set in a determined frown.

"I..."

What does he want her to do?

No.

This is her asking what he wants, right now.

What he needs her to do to help that happen.

"I want to see her again..."

All it takes is that statement and Velma sends him a mischievous grin, clapping her hands together and turning back toward the compartment, "Right! So, as we all know most GPS connected to the car require the actual car to be running, and while the lights are on nothing else in the car seems to be functioning. Lucky for us though, this one is similar to Freddie's - meaning it has-"

"A keyhole!" Shag jumps in and Velma snaps and points at him.

"Exactly. Unfortunately, even if we do unlock it - assuming we find the key - we'll only have a few seconds of time to send out the message before the device shuts off again. These things have shit emergency power and seeing as we've been down here for maybe eight hours already it's safe to say that it's dead. After that we get zero redos. Got all that Shags?"

Shaggy gulps and nods, "Like no second chances, got it."

Then a thought pops into his head, "Uh yeah, quick question ma'am. It shouldn't be hard to find our GPS to send the message to but uh... how are we supposed to know where the hell we are?"

Velma stares at him for a few seconds before smirking, "Ah... that is where you come in my friend."

"Me?"

She chuckles, "Yes Mr. "I have the nose of a bloodhound."

"Wha-.. Uh-...I... Velms, like we've been down here for hours and I haven't smelled anything. Zip. Nada." Velma simply returns this with another chuckle before replying, "Well you were a depressed loser for a wide percentage of those hours."

He stares blankly at her before sighing, "Yeah... but- blaming my lack of smelling ability on my mental state has a wide margin for error don't you think?"

"And do you have a better idea?"

Shag ponders that question for a second and then groans.

Closing his eyes, he tries to concentrate on every little thing his nose has been able to detect thus far. Dirt, sweat, blood, iron, the rubber from the tires; that's as far out as his senses have been able to travel.

Sighing, he opens his eyes and looks at Velma, "Velms I-"

"Norville Shaggy Rogers, you told me that you - yes you sir, nobody else - wanted to see the love of your life Daphne Blake again. Did you not?" She's crossing her arms and scowling at him.

Her words send a wave of heat over him and he looks down at his hands, "Like-"

"Yes! That's exactly what you said! Don't bullshit me like this, I have seen you pick out every single ingredient in my mom's vegan lasagna without even tasting it. You were able to help us find a gas station in the middle of Vegas when the van broke down. You're a freaking X-Man Shags!"

Velma's eyes are practically glowing as she rants to him, he's not used to her putting so much faith in him.

And then he's thinking about Daphne, her perfect eyes being the only thing in the world he needs.

He closes his eyes again and takes as deep a breath as he can.

He's back at the scent of rubber, weirdly enough, they're definitely new tires, but he doesn't think much of it - trying his hardest to grip onto something new. Flames of red and blue and orange dance around under his eyelids, each one something he's already seen before; no what he needs right now is a new color.

It occurs to him that he probably looks insane to Velma right now, eyes closed and a constant sniffing.

Not like he should be feeling self conscious, he's just trying to save their lives.

He almost jumps in his seat at the flash of purple appearing just in the corner of his vision. Not wasting another moment gripping onto the color and following it, trying to place what it is.

"Funnel cake."

He hears Velma gasp, "So we're still near the park?"

Shag lingers on the shade for a moment longer before nodding, "Yeah, no doubt about it, this is the same stuff from our park."

Velma nods and bites her lip in thought, recalling that they only had one funnel cake stand in the whole of the park. "D-Do you think you can place how far from the stand we are?"

Shaggy sighs and rubs the back of his neck, "Like, I'll try Velms..."

Slowly, Shag begins to climb the violet hue, trying his best to avoid getting lost in all the rivaling smells.

It wasn't helping that the purple was just making him think of Daph and then his mind would start to drift, only being pulled back in by his desire to see the real deal in front of him again.

He's not quite sure how long he's been ascending the lavender rope for but it's definitely been a slow going process because his inhales are shorter and require more effort.

Oddly enough, when he reaches the surface of what he's assuming is the earth, Shag is completely winded.

And it takes no time for him to be absolutely drowned in a barrage of new colors, all of them trying to get him to look away from the purple. But he keeps his grip firm and tight, noticing that it's definitely getting brighter and more intense in hue - he has to be close.

Suddenly, all the other colors vanish - being completely drowned in the ferocity of the violet. All Shag can comprehend is purple and he can practically feel Daphne staring into his soul, but this isn't Daph - this is funnel cake. And it's right on top of them.

He lets out a gasp and his eyes shoot open, Velma goes from bored and relaxed to alert in a second, "Did you find out where we are?"

Shag nods, still trying to catch his breath, "We-...We're...un- underneath."

Velms raises an eyebrow, "Underneath...the funnel cake stand?"

He nods again, closing his eyes and groaning as he's overwhelmed by the colors again.

"You mean...directly underneath?"

"L-Like we might be five or six feet below the surface, but we're definitely underneath the stand."

Velma is quiet for a second, crossing her arms as she processes the new information, "So...somebody knocks me out, runs you down, somehow takes down the entire stand, and then buries an entire car six feet under, and nobody noticed?"

Shag rubs the back of his neck in thought, "Like, wasn't there a lot of construction going on? Because the park's not up to code or something like that? I can't remember what the lawyer chick said."

Velms sighed, "Yeaahhh I kinda blacked out whenever she talked, remind me never to go to law school."

"Noted."

"Anyway, while you were going on a sniffing adventure, I managed to find the damn key to this stupid GPS. Now I just need to figure out the location of the stand in relationship to the Mystery Machine." Velma is in super-detective concentration mode right now, meaning she'll ask a lot of questions out loud but they're all rhetorical and Shag should not attempt to answer any of them.

That's Fred's job, not his.

As he watches the one-woman show play out before him, a question from earlier pops back to the center of his brain.

"Uh... Velms?" She sends him an annoyed look but she stops mumbling to listen, "Again, if Fred and Daph can even get the message and know it's from us and go to the tent, how are they supposed to know we're buried under the crust of the earth?"

Velma's eyebrows furrow and she nods, "Yes, that is an issue..."

She's silent for several minutes before she snaps her fingers, "Of course!"

Without wasting a second, Velma leans forward and pops open the glove compartment again. Shag can hear her fishing around in there for a few moments before returning back in front of him, holding what looks like a black cord.

His eyes widen when he realizes what it is.

"Like...is that..."

"Yes it is. A USB hookup. And if I'm right..." Velma reaches over and grabs Shag's phone from his hand, ignoring his protests, and lines up the plug-in with the phone's charging port.

"Hah!" She laughs loudly, making Shaggy jump.

"This hookup is compatible with your dumb Android."

"Okay, like not all of us wanna use a thousand pesos of our parent's money to buy a phone that'll break in two months."

Velma rolls her eyes, "Shag... now is not the time for smartphone feuds. We have our lives on the line."

"Wh-? You started i-"

"Ah ba ba! More pressing matters... how fast can you type on this keyboard?" Shag's sighs and leans back against the door, all this action is helping him forget the fact that his leg is starting to look like a zombie's leg.

"Uuuhhh... thumbs like lightening. Why?"

"Becaaauuse..." Velma starts as she begins to plug the other end of the cord to the GPS, "I'm gonna need those lightning thumbs to type out some sort of message while I put in our location."

Shag raised an eyebrow at her, "A GPS is able to send and receive text messages?"

"Shaggy, Fred's GPS is capable of semi-sentient speech."

"...Fair enough."

Without a moment to lose, Velma begins to map out their location in her head, knowing she'll only have a couple seconds to lock onto the Mystery Machine and then plot out the point toward the funnel cake stand. Meanwhile, Shaggy will have the same amount of time to type out some sort of clue to hint at where they were in the stand.

After maybe ten minutes of psyching up and hoping their thumbs would respond fast enough, Velma slowly inserts the small, plastic key into the keyhole.

Shags hand are shaking but poised to type like the wind.

Carefully, she turns the key until she hears a beep and the screen lights up, giving them a low battery symbol before giving them a map of their location.

The pressure kicks in as the beeping continues and Velma is suddenly looking for and sort of signal coming from the van, Shag jumps when a keyboard pops up on his screen.

He freezes up for a moment, completely forgetting what he was gonna type, the beeping sending blow after blow at his thought process.

It takes one particularly deep breath for him to remember his word of choice and to begin typing it.

And then, his screen is black.

Never giving him the chance to finish the word.

"Di-Did you get it?" He asks as he looks up at Velma, she's panting heavily and gripping either side of the GPS. Her knuckles are white.

"I-...I'm pretty sure I got it, i-it was sent out to the nearest signal I could latch onto. I'm really hoping it was the Mystery Machine." She says that with a breathless chuckle as she leans back in the driver's seat, "What about you?"

He gulps and licks his dry lips, "I at least got half of the word..."

Velma chuckles again, this one extremely dry, "What was your word?"

Shag leans against the door again, trying to avoid thinking about how he might have ruined their last chance of survival, "Underneath."

Hour Five:

Shag jolted awake.

He had been fading in and out for the past half an hour at least with each little "power nap" lasting around five minutes.

The last time he had shaken himself awake with a sneeze.

He wasn't sure that was gonna help any with the oxygen deprivation but at this point Shaggy didn't even care how much time they had left.

It was narrowed down to either they would be found by the rest of the gang...

Or they wouldn't.

Shag pretended that whole unconscious thing was just awful and he was trying his best to avoid it, ignoring all the different stories he'd experience with Daphne when his eyes were shut.

Damn it.

He should've stormed up and kissed the living daylights out of her ages ago.

If only the extenuating factor that Daphne may not need - better word - want to be kissed by Shaggy Rogers didn't take him over.

He certainly understood that.

She could be dating superheros and models and gajillionaires, people born with symmetrical faces and everything.

In his opinion, he wasn't nearly perfect enough to kiss her, but didn't change the fact that he wanted to. He so desperately wanted to; lost count of all the times he had been lost in thought and just thinking how easy it would for him to casually blurt out, "Hey I love you. Yes you. In the purple."

But as easy as it was to say, it was chained down - never to escape his mouth.

Because those damn eyes just terrified him so much when the moment was important to him.

Maybe she's relieved that he doesn't love her.

Maybe she really needs him as her friend and nothing else.

He really didn't want to mess that up.

Groaning, he put those thoughts on the back burner and rubbed his tired eyes that were fighting off the temptations of sleep, and failing. Shag wasn't sure when but eventually if he let himself fall asleep, he won't be waking up.

It was at this point he noticed a faint beeping coming from somewhere next to him.

For a split second Shaggy wondered if he had already been rescued and was just hooked up to an IV, safe in a hospital above the ground.

But then, he opened his eyes and indeed confirmed that he was still in the God forsaken car.

The lights had clicked off awhile ago and refused to turn off, making it even harder to resist sleep.

Him and Velma had tried talking back and forth with each other to keep the brain stimulated or whatever. But they soon found it hard to talk and breathe at the same time, so they dropped that.

Luckily, that beeping had yet to stop and was doing a bang-up job of keeping him awake, and annoying the hell out of him.

He heard a shuffle and Velma's exasperated groan as she sat up and said, "Okay what the hell is that?"

Shag winced as he leaned forward, his leg was completely numb at this point and he was glad the lights were off because otherwise he'd be too afraid to look at it. His eye trained toward where the beeping was coming from, spots of purple blinking in and out around his vision as his eye failed to adjust to the darkness. Gasping as he saw what he believed to be the GPS blinking red in time with the beeps.

A timer set for fifteen minutes in black text stood out over the red screen.

After a couple of seconds Shaggy realized it was counting down.

Down to what, he didn't know.

Didn't wanna know.

But for some reason he was still alive to know.

"Like... it's just one thing after the other isn't it?"

He said that with a bitter chuckle, leaning back against the door and groaning as he attempted to shift his leg, it hadn't moved at all.

Velma clears her throat and for the first time in an hour, he saw her face. Well, the silhouette of her face against the blinking, red light. As she's examining the GPS, her brow furrows and Shag can't really tell whether she's confused or troubled. The last thing he needed was for that look to be troubled, his life was already in jeopardy, wasn't that good enough?

After a few minutes, Velma sighs and leans back into the seat, "This damn thing is connected to basically everything in the car, there's no way for me to know what this thing is whining about..."

And thus, she begins to think out loud.

Shaggy leans forward some more, with the hopes of preventing sleep - however tempting it may be. Luckily, the consistent beeping in proving rather helpful in that regard.

It was grating to say the least, each beep acting as some sort of needle stabbing into his brain until all he felt was a light stinging. Putting his head in his hands, Shags groans out, "Aaagh why couldn't this psycho just send us flying off a cliff? Or suffocate us with the damn airbags? But noooo, all our criminals gotta be "quirky" and add sort of fun twist to the horror. God I hate serial killers..."

Velma chuckles and Shaggy brings his gaze up to her, "What? Airbag suffocation is a clever one." He raises an eyebrow at her before she rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, "Whatever, I though it was funny..."

Suddenly, her face lights up, "Airbags!"

Shag sighs and leans back, "Yup, that's what I said..."

Velma scoffs, "No you dweeb, that's probably what the damn GPS is counting down to. Once it reaches zero I'll bet you anything that it'll activate the explosives in the airbags and blow up the car."

Shag stares at her, after a beat of silence he says, "I'll get in on that action, If it blows up and we like, die, then I owe you $50. But if we just suffocate to death due to a lack of oxygen than you owe me $50."

"Hardy har smartass. The explosives won't be enough to kill us... But... they will probably blow a hole in the car, resulting several tons of dirt flooding in and drowning us. That might be a problem." She leans back into her chair and sighs, Shaggy simply smiles and says, "Hey, so I'll win the bet either way! Sweet!"

Another beat of silence.

Velma ends it, "Do-... Do you think Fred and Daph have started looking for us yet?"

She begins to twiddle her thumbs.

"I have no doubt in my mind..." He takes a deep breath, it comes out more like a wheeze, "But, like, it doesn't matter anymore. We've only got like..."

He leans forward to look at the timer.

"Nine minutes and thirty-four seconds until the white light comes to pick us up."

"Wow, I can't believe you're gonna die a virgin..." Velma smirks back at him.

He rolls his eyes and smiles, "Yeah poor me, at least I can die admitting I fell in love. I don't see your phone wallpaper of a certain trapping enthusiast."

Shaggy wishes the lighting were better in here because he can tell she's blushing.

"We-Well I... I would have...i-if that damn clown hadn't stolen my phone..."

Velma looks down at her lap as she states this and Shag can't help but grin, "Well... It's no declaration of love, but it's close enough."

She looks up to glare at him.

She opens her mouth to say something but is stopped short by the unbearable *screeeeech* coming from directly above them.

Shag and Velma's eyes shoot upward towards the sound, then looking back down at one another - eye widened in shock.

"That-" Shag licks his lips, not brave enough to admit that was what he thinks it was.

Velma on the other hand is plenty brave and finishes, "Was something scraping the roof of the car?"

Shaggy's heartbeat has sped up to far beyond what is healthy, leaving a drumming in his head to meet the constant stabs of the shrill beeping. He feels like he's about to throw up, or faint, or both at the same time, it's almost as if he can every little thing and yet can't make out what any of it is.

Another long, scrape sends his pulse up even more.

Velma only needs to register the noise for a second before she starts banging on the roof, "We're in here!" Shaggy is almost impressed at how fast she was able to act because all he can do listen to the drumming in his head and stare as his shaking hands.

Velma jumps back when then hear a knocking from above, instantly she bangs up again, "Freddie?! Daphne?! This better be you two!"

He can hear her voice tremble as she keeps shouting out.

Whoever is over them is shouting back, but their voice is muffled and neither of them can make out a single word. They both stare at each other for a minute and Shaggy can see that she's crying, something he rarely ever gets to witness. And then he sees her gaze flicker over toward the GPS and his skin goes cold, it only takes a second for him to swallow up all the needles in his throat before he gets on his knees.

Slowly and with a lot of trying not to cry.

Biting his lip he looks over at Velma who has taken off her glasses to better let the tears flow.

With determination, Shaggy pounds his fist as hard as he can against the cushioned roof of this God forsaken car, "Fred, Daphne! There's a bomb down here! Like you've gotta get outta here!"

A sob catches in his throat and nearly chokes him, but he forces it back down.

He can hear Velma pounding away as well, but he can't even really hear what she's saying.

But he can feel his knuckle getting bruised and the air being all but gone from the car, and his leg is just introducing him to a whole new world of hurt.

One that he certainly was not a fan of.

After several second of nonstop pounding, they both stopped, trying to contain their deep breaths. It was complete silence up top, no pounds back and no screeches to be heard, just the eerie beeping.

They were alone again.

Collapsing back against the door, Shag reminded himself that deep breaths were a luxury he could not afford right now.

Daphne was safe.

And that was all he needed to know.

Ever since the day he couldn't look her in the eyes without being frozen in place, the attention toward Daphne's safety tripled. Even now, while trapped in a car with no air left to breath and a bomb about to go off, all he could care about is the fact that she wouldn't be caught up in it.

That she wasn't the one stuck in the car for who knows how long.

The beeping seemed to get louder as everything else around his senses began to fade.

'You can make it.'

'She's right there.'

'You just have to survive a bomb blast and then you can fumble out the confession you've been waiting for.'

'And then they'll amputate your leg.'

He smiled as he continued to fight the battle of keeping his eyes open, seeing that Velma was putting up the same fight.

"H-" His throat was in agony from the sudden barrage of screaming it had to go through just minutes ago.

"How long-"

"Two minutes and fifty-something seconds..."

Well damn she still had her voice.

Normally, Shag's voice never gave out like this; but after dealing with oxygen deprivation and holding back tears for several hours - it was safe to say he was down for the count.

He simply nodded in response and tried to sit up straighter, hoping that would scare the sleep away.

Two minutes becomes an eternity when you're just waiting for it to pass.

And then, poof!

Or, maybe a better word would be "boom!"

At the last second, Shag's eye had popped open and he realized that Velma was sitting right in front of the airbags.

"Vel-" He coughed, groaning as the coughing didn't stop; leaning forward, he grabbed her arm and tugged toward the backseat. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, but then her whole face contorted in shock, "Aw shit!" jumping out of the driver's seat and into the back.

She crashed right on top of his problem leg, but he didn't even have the strength the talk - much less scream.

"Tuck your head in so you don't get any shrapnel lodged into your eyes."

He sighed and leaned forward to put his head between his knees, and not even a second had passed when the whole front of the car went "BOOM!"

Something something hotter than Hell itself slammed against his cheek, and for a few moments he heard sizzling.

One of his favorite sounds was being used for evil.

But it quickly stopped and fell from his face.

Shag felt Velma grab onto his wrist and squeeze, as they listened to the car settle. His ears were ringing and he was coughing up smoke and dust, and the heat around them had become so drastically intense that he could already feel sweat dripping down his face.

He opened his eyes and found that the air was out to sting them.

Groaning at the sight of dirt spilling in from the shattered windshield.

He heard Velma let out a cough before puling on his wrist and moving toward the charred, front of the car.

"Velma what-" The coughing fit interrupted him once again.

Velma turned to look back at him, he saw a small shard of the windshield sticking out of her forehead, "We know that whoever is up there digging us out has reached the top of our car, so all we need to do is dig our asses out and then pass out on the roof."

Shag looked down to see the the dirt was already burying her knees, if they were gonna do this then they needed to do it now.

He immediately regretted that decision as soon as his mouth got filled with hot dirt.

Swimming in earth wasn't exactly a breeze like swimming around in water.

Now that was something Shag was confident in, he had gone scuba-diving so many times he had lost count. But fighting an upwards battle against relentless dirt that needed to occupy every open space was too much. Especially since there was next to know fight left in his body to begin with, just the promise of daylight to caress him and purple eyes to haunt him.

It was a system.

Push up with all the strength he had and then stop, think about food and Scooby and the criminal that did this to them being thrown into jail.

And Daphne, of course.

And even though he was running on empty, he'd push himself up again - squeezing on Velma's hand to tell her he wasn't dead yet. And then she'd squeeze back.

He almost made the stupid mistake of opening his mouth again when his free hand no longer felt dirt, but open air.

It only needed to hang out there for a few seconds before felt someone grip onto it, hard, and begin to pull. Shaggy held on tightly to both Velma and the Savior's hand as, sure enough, he began rise even faster.

And then all at once, there was the sun again, hanging over their heads and welcoming them back into the land of the living.

Shaggy instantly took a deep breath of air as he fell down onto the roof of the car.

Spitting out every last bit of dirt so he could truly appreciate the air he was taking in.

He could hear Velma coughing up a storm behind her and he left out a relived laugh that she had also survived.

Falling down onto his back, he smiled up at the blue sky and felt hot tears streaming down his cheeks.

And then a shadow loomed over him, not even giving him a second to recognize who it was before the figured began to ravish his face with kisses.

Dog kisses.

"He- Hey Scoob! I'm- I'm okay bud, I'm right here!" He reaches up to scratch behind Scooby's ears, then moving to cradle the dog's face in his hands. Squishing up his jowls and smiling at how cute he was, "You're the best pal a guy can ask for. Did you know that?"

Scooby tilts his head and whines.

Shaggy smiles and fights off the sob in his throat, reaching down to pull that forgotten Scooby Snack out of his pocket.

The dog quickly begins panting and scoops the treat up from Shag's hand, backing away as he swallows it whole.

He smiles again, before jumping at the feeling of somebody grabbing onto his now dog slobber covered hand.

His vision blurs for a second as he tries to focus on all that red, searching for those eyes he can lock onto.

They're full of tears and kinda puffy, but they're so happy to see him.

And he's totally breathless once again.

But this lack of air is something he can deal with.

"I swear, nobody knows how to scare the living hell outta me like you do Shags." She says it with a shaky laugh, but hearing her voice is enough to make him sob.

"I- I'll choose to take that as a compliment."

He gasps out before letting himself come undone.

Daphne giggles as she brings her left hand up to his neck, letting it rest on his cheek, he thumb barely grazing the nasty burn he just remembered he has.

It's then that it all hits him.

He almost died.

Like if he were a few seconds too slow for anything, than he'd be dead.

And Daphne Blake is above him, squeezing the life out of his hand and stroking his cheek.

'You need to tell her.'

'Before she almost loses you again.'

Now that he has the chance to breathe as much as he wants, he finds that all he can do is hold his breath.

"Daphne." He almost chokes out, lifting his right hand up to brush some hair away from her tear-stained cheeks.

"Shaggy." She leans into his hand.

"I-"

'Say it'

"I don't think I can lose you again." Daphne breathes out.

Before he can even think of anything to top that, she leans down and presses her lips to his. And through their actions alone, they both know.

They're in love.

And the other finally can see it.

Her hands tangle up in his hair and he rests his hands on either side of her neck for support.

And they probably did that for several minutes but who's keeping track of time?

It finally takes Freddie tugging on Daph's shoulder to break them both apart.

"Daphne, the- uh... the paramedics are here..." He looks like he's trying not to laugh as Daph slowly backs away, both of them out of breath and red and pretending they have no clue what just happened.

They hear Velma hoot from a short distance behind them.

As Shag and Velma are checked on the gurneys Fred and Daph give them all the details, details which they both already knew.

"And the dang GPS wouldn't shut up! So then I figured that it was just malfunctioning or something."

"Freddie, that thing is always malfunctioning." Velma says as the medic checks her for a concussion.

"Yeah, like, weren't we supposed to be visiting your uncle this week? Instead it brings us to a haunted amusement park of death!" Winces as they poke and prod his leg.

He hears Velma groan next to him, "Doc, when can I take th damn oxygen mask off?"

The paramedic clicks off his flashlight before saying, "When I say you can..." And then walking away.

Shag chuckles and then lets out a hiss as they try to move his leg.

Daphne bites her lip as she looks down at it, reaching for his hand and tangling their fingers together.

"Nasty right?" Shag jokes, looking up at her.

She gives him a glare that eventually turns somber.

"Just know that she'll still love you, even with one leg." Velma yells out, falling into a fit of giggles.

Daph's face goes red and she rolls her eyes, "I don't think she's gonna stop doing that."

He grins and gives her hand a squeeze.

Suddenly his eyes widen, "Oh! Oh- um do either of y'all remember the name of that lawyer chick?"

Velma jumps in, "Yeah, Shag and I were hashing it all out and we found out that she'd probably have the most to gain from this whole Ferdinand the Death Clown fiasco."

Fred chuckles, "Ferdinand? I thought we agreed on Beebo?"

"Freddie that's a dumb name and you're dumb." Shaggy says with a smile.

Everybody laughs for a few seconds, just trying to forget the past few hours and remember right now.

The five of them, still together.

"Wait..." Daphne says, "You two were buried alive for hours, and you both spent that time solving the mystery?"

Shag and Velma locks eyes, both bearing a confused look, "Well yeah..." Shag says as he melts into the pillows.

"What else were we supposed to do?" Velma says, eyebrows furrowed.

Daphne and Fred look at each other in astonishment.

Before Daphne snickers and lifts their joined hands up to her lips, pressing a kiss against his knuckles.

"Hey, once a meddling kid, always a meddling kid." Shag jokes as he ignores the pink, shimmer lip gloss on the back of his hand.

A/N:

This legit took me like a month in total to write because work and school and writer's block are conspiring against me.

This is based off of my favorite episode of the crime drama Bones, the episode is call "The Aliens in the Spaceship" and it's a masterpiece.

Before Shaggy and Daphne, there was Hodgins and Angela and they are both very similar dynamic wise. What can I say? I have a type.

I've have a crime show addiction since I was young and my parents let me watch CSI with them.

And shows like Bones and Castle hold a very special place in my heart.

So I really wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite episodes from a TV show ever.


End file.
